How to achieve a win-win situation with high cotton yield and high quality?
On April 6, in the 29th Regiment of the Second Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a large seeder equipped with a GPS satellite positioning and navigation system was sowing cotton. Looking around, new high-quality cotton seeds, drip irrigation tapes, and agricultural films form silvery white lines, which are particularly dazzling.
Due to the advantages of water, soil and heat resources, the output for more than 20 consecutive years has established Xinjiang’s unshakable position in domestic cotton production, forming a pattern of “Chinese cotton looks at Xinjiang”.
Since the implementation of the cotton target price reform pilot policy, although the quality and efficiency improvements have been significant, the Xinjiang cotton industry is still difficult to get rid of the situation of high planting costs, overcapacity and insufficient high-quality cotton.
As a dominant cotton-producing area, how can we leverage our advantages to make the industry stronger? Industry insiders pointed out that supply-side structural reform with quality improvement as the key is the only way to solve the problems of high cost and low quality of domestic cotton.
It is urgent to reduce costs and improve quality
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics website, Xinjiang’s total cotton output reached more than 3.59 million tons in 2016, accounting for 67.3% of the country’s total. Xinjiang is not only my country’s largest upland cotton producing area, but also It has also developed into the only high-quality long-staple cotton and colored cotton producing area.
The cotton industry plays a pivotal role in Xinjiang’s economic and social development, with its output value accounting for approximately half of the agricultural output value. More than 50% of farmers in Xinjiang grow cotton, and cotton planting income accounts for about 35% of farmers’ per capita net income. In southern Xinjiang, more than 90% of counties grow cotton, and income from cotton planting is an important source of income for local people.
However, there are still many challenges for Xinjiang’s cotton industry. First of all, some countries and regions suitable for growing cotton have vigorously developed cotton production. Xinjiang cotton not only has to face competition from modern and efficient cotton production methods in developed countries such as US cotton and Australian cotton, but also has to withstand the strong impact of low-cost cotton production in other regions.
Due to factors such as small production scale and scattered production units, the application of advanced cotton planting technology in Xinjiang is definitely restricted. In terms of mechanization level, according to statistics from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Corps’ machine-picked cotton area in 2016 was 6.5 million acres, and the cotton machine-picked rate was 72.9%. However, judging from the local cotton planting situation, due to the poor land intensity, cotton picking is still mainly done by hand.
At present, the total cost of hand-picked cotton cultivation in Xinjiang reaches more than 2,100 yuan per mu, of which the labor cost of manual picking has reached more than 50% of the total cost. At the same time, physical and chemical inputs such as fertilizers, water, and oil are also growing rapidly. The rapid increase in production costs has definitely restricted the improvement of Xinjiang’s cotton market competitiveness.
In 2014, the three-year temporary cotton purchase and storage system was withdrawn and replaced by a target price reform pilot aimed at returning cotton to market pricing. Over the past few years, the price-subsidy separation mechanism is gradually taking shape. However, falling cotton prices have also put pressure on cotton farmers to increase their income. At the same time, with the transformation of domestic fabric companies, the demand for high-quality cotton in the downstream of the cotton industry chain continues to increase. However, the output of high-quality cotton is not high, and it is difficult for effective supply to meet demand, which has become a bottleneck for the development of Xinjiang’s cotton industry. It is urgent to reduce costs and improve quality.
Laying the foundation for large-scale operations and improving the level of mechanization
“The cost of hand-picked cotton is too high. This year, it must be planted according to the standards of machine-picked cotton.” It is spring sowing, and the plan of Li Xiaolin, a major cotton grower in Xinhe County, Aksu Prefecture, is different from previous years. As a large cotton grower, he has 2,000 acres of cotton fields. It is not difficult to mechanize. “But it is difficult for some retail farmers to do it. Each family does not have much land. It is not cost-effective for large machinery to enter the land, and some cannot be converted at all.” Open up.”
Li Xiaolin proposed to use moderate land transfer to increase the scale of cotton planting. “I also contract other people’s land so that it can be connected into a piece to facilitate mechanized planting.” It is understood that land transfer work in Xinjiang is progressing steadily. .
At the same time, the research and development of agricultural machinery is also an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Chen Xuegeng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, introduced,
Cotton production��Full-process mechanization is a complex technical system with great difficulty and workload. Developed countries such as the United States and Australia have realized full-process mechanization of cotton production. Since Xinjiang’s soil and climate conditions and agronomic cultivation technology are very different from those of the above-mentioned countries, the mature full-process mechanization technology of cotton production in foreign countries cannot fully adapt to the requirements of Xinjiang. “Our cotton production mechanization There is still a long way to go in technology research and development.”
The reporter learned from the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Reclamation Sciences that the results of the “Research and Development and Application of Key Technologies and Equipment for the Whole-Process Mechanization of Cotton Production” project led by Chen Xuegeng have been applied on a large scale in Xinjiang. Experts said that this project has built a full-process cotton mechanization technology system that adapts to Xinjiang’s characteristics, which is of great significance to improving the mechanization level of national cotton production and enhancing the international competitiveness of my country’s cotton industry.
“There is another obstacle to the mechanization of cotton planting, that is, the equipment of finishing companies cannot keep up with market demand. The equipment for picking cotton with finishing machines and sorting hand-picked cotton are completely different. Many small ginners do not have the latest equipment. Due to the equipment’s capabilities, it is difficult for cotton farmers to sell machine-picked cotton nearby.” Sha Yi, a staff member of the Propaganda Department of Hutubi County, Changji City, told reporters that the mechanization of cotton planting also needs to eliminate the backward production capacity of cotton sorting, “taking advantage of the downward market oscillations We should take advantage of the opportunity to gradually improve and sort out the overcapacity situation in the circulation industry, and continuously improve the situation of small enterprises, extensive governance, high production costs, and weak competitiveness, so as to optimize production capacity and rationalize layout.”
“Increasing the promotion of water-saving irrigation technology in cotton fields can also reduce production costs to a certain extent.” Zhou Shuxia, director of the Research Institute of the Agricultural Science Institute of the First Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, told reporters that in recent years, the Corps We have been committed to the research of water-saving drip irrigation technology. Practice has proved that it can not only effectively alleviate drought conditions in farmland, make crops grow significantly better than conventionally irrigated plots, but also effectively enhance the ability of cotton to withstand natural disasters.
Optimize the planting structure and speed up the cultivation of improved seeds
How to solve the dilemma of shortage of high-grade cotton and surplus of low-grade cotton? Some industry observers believe that Xinjiang’s cotton industry should target mid-to-high-end demand, adjust the industrial structure, and highlight the word “excellent”.
Since 2014, along with the pilot cotton target price reform, the cotton planting area in Xinjiang has continued to decrease. The person in charge of the Agricultural Office of the Autonomous Region Party Committee said: “On the surface, the cotton planting area is decreasing, but the yield and quality have shown an upward trend. More importantly, the vitality of the market has been further restored. In order to get more in the reform Farmers and enterprises are paying more attention to quality and efficiency, and the outlook of the industry has been greatly improved.”
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that despite the decrease in cotton planting area in Xinjiang in 2016, the total cotton output still increased by 91,000 tons compared with 2015, an increase of 2.6% due to an increase of 151.5 kilograms per hectare.
“After adjusting the target price level, social expectations of cotton planting income will decline, which will prompt the less suitable cotton areas and risky cotton areas to gradually withdraw from cotton planting, and the scale of cotton planting in Xinjiang will also be further controlled. Optimize the agricultural planting structure at a reasonable level,” said the person in charge of the Agricultural Office.
Last August, a seminar on China’s cotton production progress was held in Luntai County, Xinjiang. Experts at the Peace Conference believe that under the new situation, my country’s cotton production faces the challenges of variety improvement, mechanization, precision, and standardization, among which the research and development of improved seeds is the key to the next step of production upgrading.
Zhou Shengtao, former president of the China Cotton Association, said that in cotton production, seed issues are a top priority, and the research and development of improved seeds is a basic research and development with high scientific and technological content. In recent years, cotton seed research and development has made great progress. In particular, genetically modified cotton seeds have solved the problem of cotton diseases and insect pests and increased cotton yields. However, if cotton wants to achieve high yield and high quality, it is necessary to continue to do in-depth research on seeds.
This year, Aksushaya County plans to use 100,000 acres of cotton land as a cotton reform pilot. It is currently vigorously promoting the “seed project”. The county will screen out a seed list of no more than 5 varieties. Build a high-quality website database.
Hu Xiaoping, a staff member of the Agricultural Section of the 81st Regiment of the 5th Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, has been dealing with cotton seeds for 23 years. She said that cotton seed breeding is not a simple matter. Only when new varieties are used in production practice can cotton quality be gradually improved.
Zhou Shuxia proposed that in order to promote improved varieties, positive feedback from the market is needed to achieve “high quality and good price”. If the current sales model is still followed, only the yield determines the income, and the promotion of high-quality cotton seeds will definitely be affected.
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AAA�To achieve “high quality and good price”, if we still follow the current sales model and only rely on yield to determine revenue, the promotion of high-quality cotton seeds will be definitely affected.
AAAGFREGRTTHR
Disclaimer:
Disclaimer: Some of the texts, pictures, audios, and videos of some articles published on this site are from the Internet and do not represent the views of this site. The copyrights belong to the original authors. If you find that the information reproduced on this website infringes upon your rights, please contact us and we will change or delete it as soon as possible.
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