According to agricultural surveys in recent years, since 2016, the cotton planting area in the mainland has been decreasing year by year, and the prices of agricultural inputs have also shown a downward or stable trend.
After the spring plowing and sowing preparation work was fully launched this year, in traditional cotton areas such as Yancheng and Nantong in Jiangsu During the survey and inquiry, the local physical and chemical cost of cotton planting in recent years has basically hovered between 700-800 yuan/acre. In some cases, there will be greater differences in cost investment due to different planting varieties, density, transplanting and harvesting time, such as The production cost of Wheat Cotton is only 600 yuan/mu.
The first is seeds. In recent years, the quantity and price of cotton seeds sold in the Jiangsu market have both declined due to the impact of planting area. The sales price of double-resistant cotton is mostly less than 40 yuan per 80 grams. It is about 15 yuan lower than in previous years, a drop of more than 30%; the sales price of improved varieties mainly promoted by real estate has even dropped by more than 50%. In addition, urea, the main fertilizer in the cotton growth process, currently sells for 46% nitrogen-containing urea at 1,900 yuan/ton, a decrease of 200 yuan/ton from the same period last year. The information officer saw a large amount of pre-stored fertilizer in the homes of some farmers in the cotton area. When asked about the reasons for storing fertilizer, most farmers believed that the reason for storing fertilizer in the off-season was because the price was low. When it comes to production, everyone has to buy fertilizer for application. Fertilizer price trends Changes generally occur. In addition to the decline in the prices of the two major inputs of seeds and fertilizers, the current market prices of pesticides and agricultural films are also mostly falling slightly or maintaining a stable state. Considering the implementation of the regulatory policy of focusing on agriculture and stabilizing agriculture under the anti-epidemic situation, the price index level of bulk agricultural inputs The overall downward macro trend is expected to remain.
According to analysis by industry insiders, affected by the decline in market prices of agricultural inputs, cotton farmers’ productive cost inputs have been reduced by at least 20%, while domestic fertilizers and organic fertilizers are used, and light seedling cultivation and other production methods are implemented. The cost of cotton planting for farmers will be reduced even further. Preliminary calculations show that the cost of using cotton seeds per mu is 20 yuan. Calculated based on 200 kilograms of fertilizer, cotton planting costs 50 yuan less per mu than in previous years. Adding in the depreciation savings from years of use of pesticides and chemical machinery, it is estimated that the cost per mu will be 20 yuan per mu. The cost of cotton planting decreased by about 100 yuan compared with the average of the previous three years. Moreover, the labor savings in light cultivation are calculated by reducing the labor input by 3 people per mu and the daily wage of each laborer is 70 yuan. The labor cost of planting cotton per acre saves more than 200 yuan in wage investment. In summary, the total input cost savings per mu Around 300 yuan.
It is understood that many places in Jiangsu have generally raised cotton planting subsidies. For example, the cotton planting subsidy in Yancheng Dafeng in 2018 was 500 yuan. Adding the two items together, farmers’ actual income from cotton production now is 700-800 yuan more per mu than when there were no subsidies and the price of agricultural inputs increased. As for whether the decline in agricultural input market prices and the increase in cotton planting subsidies have the effect of stopping the decline in cotton production in the mainland, agricultural science and technology personnel in the cotton area have different opinions. If the production and market risks are lower and the degree of mechanization is higher, it is possible for traditional production areas to appropriately increase the area and output of some high-quality cotton. </p
