Cotton Planting Intention Declined 4.10% In 2020

At the end of March 2020, the cotton association of China conducted a survey of fourth cotton planting intentional areas in 2020 for 2540 designated farmers in 12 provinces and autonomous regions in Xinjiang and the mainland. The survey results showed that in 2020, the cotton planting area in China was 46 million 182 thousand and 600 mu, down 4.10% from the same period last year, a decrease of 0.93 percentage points over the previous period. In late March, the authorities announced that Xinjiang will continue to improve its target price policy from 2020. The target price level will be 18600 yuan per ton, and be evaluated every three years. Affected by this, the area of cotton planting intention in Xinjiang continued to shrink. Due to factors such as poor cotton yield and unclear subsidy policy, cotton farmers' enthusiasm for planting cotton continued to decline, and cotton's intentional area decreased. As the domestic epidemic situation has improved, agricultural production has been fully restored, and the purchase of spring ploughing and agricultural materials has been carried out smoothly. The epidemic situation has little effect on the spring sowing of cotton. At the end of the month, most of the cotton areas in the country have been ready for planting.

Xinjiang cotton planting intention area of 36 million 873 thousand and 600 mu, down 1.16% compared to the same period, the decrease was 1.21 percentage points lower than the previous period. Among them, the local area increased by 3.88% over last year, mainly with the determination of the subsidy policy, some cotton farmers who choose to continue to grow cotton, and the cotton planting area decreased by 6.04%, the decrease was 0.99 percentage points lower than that of the previous period. Among the surveyed farmers in the Xinjiang, the proportion of prepared areas decreased by 10.28%, and the proportion of cotton planting areas increased by 1.97%, which was 85.35% of that of last year. 2.40% of them were still on the sidelines.

The intention area of cotton planting in the Yangtze River Basin decreased by 14.41% compared with the same period last year, and the decrease was 4.5 percentage points higher than that of the previous period. Except for cotton sowing and seedling raising in Hubei, other provinces are normally producing spring sowing. At the end of February, affected by rainy weather and unstable temperature, only sporadic farmers began to seed seedlings. It is expected that planting will start after April 15th. The surveyed households accounted for 25.39% of the total surveyed households, 4.72% of the total surveyed households, and 65.71% of the total households surveyed last year, and 4.18% of the total households surveyed.

The cotton planting area in the Yellow River basin decreased by 13.52% over the same period last year, and the decrease was 2.5 percentage points higher than that of the previous period. Due to the unsatisfactory purchase price of cotton, nearly 20% of the catchment in the basin has not been sold in 2019, and cotton farmers worry that cotton prices will continue to go down. At the same time, the subsidy policy has not yet been implemented and the cotton planting area should be reduced. In March, the production of the river basin was fully restored, and the supply of cotton seeds and all kinds of agricultural materials was adequate. The cotton farmers had prepared for the spring sowing. At the end of the month, due to the unstable temperature, the seeding work had not yet started. The survey showed that the proportion of farmers who were prepared to reduce cotton planting area accounted for 19.01% of the total survey households; 6.17% of the total survey households were prepared to increase the area, 62.74% of the total households surveyed last year, and 12.08% of the total households surveyed.