It is the season of cotton growing now, Jiangnan village, nundong Town, Cixi, Zhejiang. Cotton grower Zhang Yinzhu is not planning to grow cotton again this year. More than 10 acres of contracted land will be ready for planting other crops. He said: "according to the current cotton prices, the income of seed cotton is not only less than that of grain, but also time-consuming and laborious. It occupies a lot of time that can be used to work."

In the past two years, cotton purchase price has been declining and production costs have been rising. Farmers' cotton yields have fallen sharply, cotton planting enthusiasm has been frustrated, and cotton planting area has declined sharply. According to the latest investigation by Zhejiang Provincial Department of agriculture, the cotton planting area of Zhejiang province will continue to decline this year, and it is a foregone conclusion.

The supply of cotton seeds has decreased by 4 this year.

According to the latest seed supply and demand information of Zhejiang seed management station, the supply of cotton seeds in Zhejiang province is 103 thousand and 600 kg this year, a decrease of 73 thousand and 900 kg over the previous year and a decrease of 41.6%. Among them, the largest reduction was in Ningbo and Shaoxing, where the total reduction of 61 thousand and 900 kg was 83.7%, representing a decrease of 36 thousand and 600 kg and 25 thousand and 300 kg respectively, representing a decrease of 44.1% and 61.1% respectively.

From the situation of seed supply, it is a foregone conclusion for the cotton planting area to drop in Zhejiang this year. It is predicted that the cotton planting area in Zhejiang will be reduced by 36 thousand and 200 mu this year compared with the previous year, with a reduction of 11.6%, of which 16.2% of Ningshao cotton area will be reduced by 26 thousand mu compared with the previous year. According to the survey of farmers' cotton planting intention, the area of the reduced cotton field is mainly changed to other crops, such as fresh food corn, fresh food and so on.

The reduction of cotton seed supply in Zhejiang province has attracted the attention of provincial leaders. Recently, vice governor Huang Xuming gave instructions at the seventy-sixth phase of the Agricultural Department of the provincial agriculture department, "the supply of spring wheat seeds in Zhejiang province is coming to an end". "What is the reason for the reduction of cotton seed supply so much? Please check it!"

　　 Seed cotton purchase price continues to decline

The low purchase price of seed cotton is one of the reasons that affect cotton farmers' enthusiasm for growing cotton.

Zhejiang province is a small province of cotton production. The area of perennial cotton is between 25-30 mu, which accounts for 0.3% of the whole country. The processing level of lint is low and the number of purchasing enterprises is low. Most of the seed cotton produced by cotton farmers is bought by local cotton processing plants. According to statistics, the purchase price of seed cotton has dropped sharply in two consecutive years, of which the average purchase price of seed cotton in 2012 was about 3.8 yuan / kg, down more than 10% from last year, down by more than 30% over 2010.

On the other hand, the cost of seed cotton has risen sharply. According to the survey, the average price of seed prices of conventional cotton varieties and hybrid cotton varieties reached 25 yuan / kg and 194.9 yuan / kg respectively this year, up 72.4% and 18.1% respectively compared with that of last year, and labor costs continued to rise. At present, cotton picking is about 1800 yuan per mu, accounting for about 60% of the total cost.

Despite the recent national reserves this year lint The new policy, but the price is still 20 thousand and 400 yuan / ton, converted into seed cotton, each catty is about 4.3-4.4 yuan. Although the price is increased by 600 yuan per tonne in 2011, it is quite different from the market purchase price of 24 thousand yuan per ton in 2011. There is no advantage in price, and the benefit of cotton planting continues to decline, which has affected the enthusiasm of cotton growers.

Seed yield is 4 times lower than grain yield.

Compared with other crops, cotton production not only has high technical requirements, more operation links, and longer harvest season, but also has a large difference in annual output level. From 2010 to 2012, Jiaxing and other coastal areas were affected by typhoons and other natural disasters. Cotton production has been substantially reduced for 3 consecutive years.

In the existing subsidy policies of strong agriculture and benefiting farmers, cotton production support policies are relatively few, for example, in 2012, cotton only has 15 yuan per mu per subsidy, and at present, rice has not only comprehensive subsidies of 54 yuan / mu of agricultural subsidies, 15 yuan per mu of fine varieties, 30 yuan per mu, etc., but also can enjoy rice production insurance, minimum protection price, order grain reward (up to 240 yuan / mu), machine income subsidy, unified prevention and control subsidy and other policies, and the production risk is small and output is stable. In recent years, its planting benefit is obviously higher than cotton.

According to the survey of Agriculture Department of Haiyan County, last year, local farmers deducted the total yield of all kinds of production cost (including subsidies, the same below), cotton and rice were 1048 yuan and 1146 yuan respectively, and the conversion to the work value per mu was 41.8 yuan and 163.7 yuan respectively, the difference between them was nearly 4 times. Therefore, under the comparative benefits, many cotton farmers have changed their crops with higher economic returns, such as rice, fresh corn, fresh soybean and vegetables. At present, the cotton growing area in Zhejiang has gradually reduced to the relatively poor soil quality in the loess hilly area, the beach sand land (saline alkali soil) and so on.

　　 Policies should be introduced to mobilize cotton farmers' enthusiasm.

"Flowers bloom all over the world, but flowers fall all over the world." This kind of bloom is in the field and brings warm white flowers to people, which is closely related to people's production and life. In the face of the complex and changeable cotton market, the industry experts suggest that we should give the same treatment to cotton according to the rice subsidy policy, so as to stabilize the cotton planting area in the suitable cotton area and continuously improve the cotton yield and quality.

　　 Zhejiang The Provincial Agricultural Technology Extension Center, Kim Chang Lin, said: "the traditional cotton growing areas in our province are mostly high quality cotton areas. The cotton fibers produced are of good maturity and high quality. To stabilize the area of cotton planting, the state should introduce policies to mobilize the enthusiasm of cotton growers. If the seed cotton only has 15 yuan per mu subsidy, compared with the grain production, the gap is too large. At the same time, we should vigorously promote the excellent varieties of insect resistant cotton, simplify cotton planting technology, reduce the input of physical and chemical materials, popularize the cotton field (set) mode, and improve the benefit of cotton planting.