Shandong Dezhou Cotton Farmers' Income Declined Due To Weak Cotton Prices

The price is weak, the cost of planting is rising, the quality and yield of seed cotton have been reduced, which has led to the decline of cotton growers' income and become the most direct reason for the enthusiasm of cotton growers.

Abandoning cotton and growing grain can liberate a lot of labor force. When farmers harvest grain, they only need to harvest large harvesters when harvesting. They can usually throw grain fields into town and earn second incomes outside grain income.

　　 cotton Reduced planting area means Spin The raw materials of the industry will tend to tighten. For textile enterprises, the raw materials of cotton textile processing enterprises can be sold at a good price after processing. After two years of industrial downturn, the spring of cotton textile industry is coming.

In another week, the cotton will be sowed. Xu Delong was much more relaxed than usual.

Xu Delong, 65 years old, is a farmer in Zhang Zhai village, Xiajin county. This year, he decided to reduce the area of cotton seed. His family contracted 14 acres of land, all cotton in the past. Xu Delong used to be a "good manager" advocated by cotton farmers in ten villages and eight villages, and also an "iron" cotton grower in Xiajin county.

Even so, he only planted 10 mu of cotton this year.

Not only Xu Delong, but also known as the "cotton city", Xiajin, which is known as the "cotton city", the cotton planting area will be reduced from 700 thousand acres to 400 thousand acres.

Looking at the whole of Dezhou, Ma Junkai, Deputy Secretary General of the cotton trade association of the city, estimated that the area of cotton seed will be reduced from about 2900000 mu in 2008 to about 1100000 mu, which will be reduced by nearly 60%.

What changes have taken place behind this? What causes the 60% cotton growers in our city to give up seed cotton?

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　　 "Weak" Cotton price

In March 22nd, Xu Delong sold the last catty cotton harvested last year. The price is still calm.

"8.6 yuan per kilogram, has been relatively stable, it is estimated that there is no room for improvement." Xu Delong chose to empty storage cotton. In 2011, he had more than 10 thousand jin of cotton in his house. At that time, cotton prices were going through roller coaster ups and downs, and the highest price reached 14.4 yuan per kilogram.

However, since the launch of new cotton in September last year, the average selling price of cotton has been hovering around 8 yuan per kilogram. According to Xu Delong's algorithm, the output value of cotton per mu is about 1840 yuan, and the net income is only 500 yuan. This means that even if Xu Delong grows 20 mu of cotton, the net income is only 10 thousand yuan, which is much better than going out to work.

On the other side of the price weakness, cotton planting costs continue to rise. In recent years, the cost of seed, fertilizer and water and electricity has gone up, but unlike wheat and corn, cotton is not only subsidized, but also needs a lot of labor. With the increase of labor costs, the burden of cotton growers has increased.

At the same time, according to Ma Junkai's situation: "affected by the continuous rainy weather in late July and early August, the quality and output of seed cotton in our city have also decreased a lot. The average yield of seed cotton is about 460 Jin, which is about 60 Jin less than that in the normal year."

The price is weak, the cost of planting is rising, the quality and yield of seed cotton have been reduced, which has led to the decline of cotton growers' income and become the most direct reason for the enthusiasm of cotton growers.

In 2007, the cotton planting area of Wuhan City, which was famous in China, had reached about 300000 mu. Now a large number of cotton fields are eaten by the wheat field. "More than 200 cotton spinning enterprises in the county may enter cotton fields in the future." Wucheng County Tianyuan cotton professional cooperatives Manager He Yutao told the author.

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　 "Grain is no worse than seed cotton".

The decline in cotton yields has led many farmers to turn their attention to growing grain. In their view, growing grain is no worse than seed cotton.

Farmers' accounts are not hard to calculate: if you plant cotton, you can't rotate other crops in a year. If grain is harvested, wheat can be turned into corn after harvest, so that two crops of grain can be harvested in a year.

Among them, the income of wheat can completely offset the cost of grain growing in one year, and the income of corn is pure income. In 2012, for example, corn yield is generally around 1200 Jin, and its output value is 1300 yuan. This is 2 times the net income per acre of cotton.

Behind this is the fundamental change of grain planting structure in our city.

"Now that both wheat and corn have been mechanized, cooperatives can help farmers complete the through-train service from harvesting to sales." Shi Wenzheng, director of Lingxian County Shengli grain and cotton planting cooperative association, told the author.

In his view, today's agricultural machinery cooperatives have adopted a mechanized planting method which is welcomed by farmers. There is no need to invest too much labor from sowing to harvesting. The cost of grain production has been greatly reduced.

In contrast, if cotton is harvested, it is difficult to mechanized cotton picking, and it needs to hire a lot of labor, and cotton farmers will be tied to farmland all the year round.

Abandoning cotton and growing grain can liberate a lot of labor force. When farmers harvest grain, they only need to harvest large harvesters when harvesting. They can usually throw grain fields into town and earn second incomes outside grain income.

According to Shi Yuzheng's algorithm, if farmers grow cotton and pick up their own cotton, they do not include labor cost, deduct the direct planting cost by 538 yuan per mu, and the mu income is 1302 yuan. If we rent cotton by hiring people, the cost of Mu is about 1288 yuan, and the yield per mu is only 558 yuan. "Working in cities for a month is far more than this income." Shi Yuzheng said.

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　　 Textile industry Spring is coming?

In the opinion of experts, the reduction of cotton planting area has created conditions for the textile industry to extricate itself from the predicament. The decrease of cotton planting area means that the raw materials of textile industry will tend to tighten. For textile enterprises, the raw materials of cotton textile processing enterprises can be sold at a good price after processing.

This year, the cotton textile industry's good start has also confirmed the judgement of experts.

According to the findings of the China Cotton Textile Industry Association, orders for downstream cotton textile industry are in good condition, especially for printing and dyeing enterprises. The export volume of cotton textiles increased from 1 to February. Regarding this, Xu Wenying, vice president of the China Textile Industry Federation, is optimistic. He said that although there were many uncertainties in 2013, the overall stability in 2013 showed a warming trend, especially in the second half of the year. This may mean that after two years of industrial downturn, the spring of cotton textile industry is coming.

However, it should be noted that at present, the textile industry is still facing many challenges, and the prices of production factors will continue to rise, especially the rise of labor employment prices, which will bring greater pressure to textile enterprises.

At the same time, the impact of the current cotton price inversion has not been eliminated. Since 2011, the price of cotton in the international market has declined, while domestic cotton prices remain high under the background of purchasing and storing prices. This has caused domestic cotton prices to be significantly higher than foreign markets, and the price differential has been constantly widening, which has seriously weakened the competitiveness of the cotton textile industry chain.

For the current situation, Dezhou textile industry still has a tough battle to fight this year. Especially in China, the cost of textile industry is in an obvious disadvantage in international comparison, and in the international market, there is still a lack of momentum for recovery. The cotton processing small and micro enterprises in our city have not yet lifted the crisis of survival.