Farmers showed smiling faces as cotton production and prices hit new highs

By Zhong Mengxia

According to Zhuochuang Information Monitoring， the annual average yield per unit area increased by about 6 percent， the total output increased by 7.6 percent year-on-year， and the farmers planting income was greatly improved， thus realizing a high yield and a good harvest.

Good weather ensured stable production

In 2020， there are less extreme weather frequency， relatively sufficient accumulated temperature and less pests in the main cotton-growing areas of Xinjiang， which makes the stable and income-increasing of cotton guaranteed. This year， the frequency of extreme weather in Xinjiang decreased by more than 70 percent compared with previous years， the average yield of seed cotton reached 349-369 kg/mu， an increase of 6 percent， and the proportion of 400 kg/mu in some areas of northern Xinjiang increased significantly compared with 2019.

Intensively farm helps cotton picking and planting

According to the National Bureau of Statistics， the cotton output in Xinjiang reached 5.161 million tons in 2020， an increase of 3 percent over last year， accounting for 87.3 percent of the total cotton output in China.

In recent years， the planting mode of machinepicked cotton has been widely promoted in Xinjiang， and the application scope of new agricultural technologies such as new high-efficiency water saving， precision sowing and unmanned aerial vehicle plant protection has been expanding. It not only improves the production efficiency of cotton planting in Xinjiang， but also improves the benefits of growers. Due to the high cost of picking cotton by hand， the planting income has been lower than that of picking cotton by machine. In order to obtain higher income， cotton farmers are enthusiastic about picking cotton by machine. It is reported that in 2020/21， the proportion of machine-picked cotton in Xinjiang has risen to over 70 percent， of which the northern Xinjiang has basically achieved full coverage of machine-picked cotton， and the proportion of southern Xinjiang has exceeded 50 percent.

Delightful harvest faced complex external environment

As of January 28th， the cotton processing capacity in Xinjiang has reached 5，486，400 tons， an increase of more than 200，000 tons over the previous year. The daily processing capacity in Xinjiang has gradually slowed down to more than 10，000 tons， and the public inspection capacity is 5，322，500 tons. The cotton purchasing and processing in Xinjiang in 2020 was coming to an end.

According to the sampling survey of Xinjiang cotton processing enterprises during the acquisition and processing period， the lint percentage of seed cotton generally increased by 1.5 percent-2.0 percent over the previous year. The good harvest and the rising purchase price have made cotton growers delightful， but some people felt worried as well.

According to the data of China Fiber Quality Monitoring Center， the quality of new cotton is different from and decline that of the previous year in terms of color grade， specific strength at break and fiber length. While lint production is increasing， the structural contradictions of raw materials exist. Some textile factory managers say that even if they take orders for medium and high-end foreign trade， they have to choose more foreign cotton to match the raw materials.

With the rise of textile industry in Southeast Asia and other countries， Chinas cotton textile industry is facing more and more competitive pressure. With the appreciation of RMB and the increase of uncertainties in the external environment， how to open up a new path for Chinas cotton textile industry to break through the bottleneck of development and continue to maintain its competitive advantage will be a problem that the whole industry must face.