Rising labor costs have become an inevitable issue for cotton production

As the purchase price of seed cotton in the major producing areas continued to decline slightly in recent days, the farmers' reluctant sentiment has increased, especially in the Hebei-Luyu region in the Yellow River Basin. Affected by factors such as the high cotton price last year and autumn seeding in recent autumn, the cotton farmer's sale The enthusiasm of cotton is greatly reduced. In Shandong, the largest cotton producing area on the mainland, from early to early November, although the progress of cotton picking has reached about 95%, the acquisition progress is only 10%, and the history of delay is rare. In the province, processing companies currently acquire mainly cotton from other provinces and cities, such as Hebei and Tianjin. Cotton farmers have difficulty in agreeing to the current four-item acquisition price, and have chosen to stop their sales.

According to an objective analysis, although the current purchase price is much lower than the 7 yuan/kg and average price of 5.3 yuan/kg in the last year's peak period, it is still at a historically high level and is supported by the national standard lint price of 19,800 yuan/ton. In most regions, the price of seed cotton with good grades is still at 4.2-4.3 yuan/kg, and the defensiveness is relatively strong. However, the author finds that the main factor affecting the cotton farmers' sale is the increase in the cost of planting cotton, and the increase in labor costs is an unavoidable issue. With the continuous rise in the wages of migrant workers in the past two years, and the employment of cotton farmers The increase in various expenditures such as management and harvesting, the labor cost expenditures of cotton production, and the high opportunity cost of growing cotton have become the number one issues that cotton farmers have to pay attention to when measuring the input and output of cotton planting.

First, labor costs have risen, and large farmers have suffered widespread losses. According to the author's survey on the situation of cotton planting in Shandong Province, the general yield in the province was about 420 pounds this year. Due to the continuous rainfall in September, the main grade of cotton fell from three to four, and the concentration of clothes was 37-38%. The current purchase price In 3.9-4.0 yuan / kg, according to this calculation of average cotton planting income of 1660 yuan. In terms of cost, this year's package fee is 450 yuan/mu, and the picking fee is increased from 0.6 yuan/kg in last year to 1.1 yuan/kg, and the expenditure on mu pick up is about 460 yuan, plus the materialization cost is 500 yuan/mu. The total cost has reached about 1,400 yuan in the calculation of the cost of hired employees. If according to the employment of about 20, 60 yuan per worker per day, this expenditure is 1,200 yuan, the average total cost of the mu is 2600 yuan, cotton planting loss is a foregone conclusion. In recent days, some large households in the province have been reluctant to hire workers to save costs. Reports that cotton has not been harvested since the arrival of frost and solar energy have not been reported.

2. Small-scale cotton farmers compare cotton planting with migrant workers, and cotton income accounts for a decline in the proportion of household income. In past cotton cultivation, small-scale farmers rarely calculated their own labor costs. However, as wages for migrant workers continue to rise, cotton income is relatively insignificant compared to working outside. Cotton farmers are more concerned about the opportunity cost of cotton planting. According to the average cotton planting income mentioned above, small farmers need about 550 yuan per mu for materialization, and do not calculate their own labor force. The income per mu planted in cotton is about 1,000 yuan, and the total income of two or three mu of land is only two or three thousand yuan a year. The average daily wage for migrant workers is less than 100 yuan, while the high is two or three hundred yuan. The hard-won cotton-growing income is less than the income from working in January, and the proportion of cotton-growing income in household income has dropped significantly. It is not surprising that with the recent drop in cotton prices, some plots of cotton are simply untouched, and cotton farmers take the initiative to abandon this piece of income. In Wucheng County, the main producing area of ​​Dezhou City, more and more farmers are choosing to pick cotton and grow wheat this year. It is not as labor-intensive as planting cotton, and it is better to plant high-level mechanized and subsidized food. The rise in labor prices has already had a serious impact on the production of cotton and even more crops that cannot be mechanized.

Third, the development of machine-made cotton in domestic real estate areas cannot be avoided. The rise in labor costs has both the effect of an overall rise in prices under inflation and also the inevitable progress of social and economic development and the disappearance of demographic dividends. At present, the increase in labor costs has been fully demonstrated in the downstream textile and garment manufacturing sectors, and it is a practical issue that cannot be avoided in the manufacturing industry. In the field of agricultural production, with the acceleration of urbanization, if the price of agricultural products is difficult to rise, or the state lacks sufficient effective support for agricultural production, those crops that are labor-intensive and difficult to mechanize will first be abandoned by farmers. In mid-October, the harvesting site of cotton mechanization in Shandong Province was held in Zhanhua County, Binzhou. The Xinjiang Corps cotton picking machine was displayed. Increasing the degree of mechanization in cotton picking is an urgent matter. The relevant departments in the future will also increase The key support of harvesting machinery.