Addressing the challenges of sustainable cotton production under competition in China
- Literature reference
-
- Author
- MA Zhiying, LIANG Weili, WANG Guiyan, FOK Michel
- English title of the work
- Addressing the challenges of sustainable cotton production under competition in China
- Title of the work
- Addressing the challenges of sustainable cotton production under competition in China
- Year of publication
- 2016
- Author's email
- michel.fok@cirad.fr
- Book title
- 6th World Cotton Research Conference, Goiania, Brazil, May 2016
- Publisher's address
- 3 Plan des chanterelles
- URL Address
- http://www.slire.net/download/2627/challenges_sustainable_cot_cn_shrt_ful.pdf
- Countries concerned
-
China
- Associated thesauruses
-
Colire
- Keywords Colire
Other assistance to producers
Management assistance
Income estimation
Cotton income
Income distribution
Income evolution
Production diversification
Crop diversification
Other agricultural diversification
Off-farm activities
Occasional off-farm activities
Permanent off-farm activities
Price fluctuations and volatility
Price volatility
Marketing strategy
Price elasticities
Crop income competitiveness
Crop income comparison
Competition for production factors
Labour competition
Comparative capital requirements
Threats from biotic factors
Susceptibility to diseases
Susceptibility to pests
Rationale for reform
Economic orientation
Measure description
Policy measures
Debate on subsidies and support
Cotton subsidies
Regulation of cotton sector
Competition
Administration of pricing mechanisms
World price
GM & pest pressure change
GM cotton
GM crop management
Integrated crop management
GM & general environmental risk
Bt cotton
Change in pest complex
Pest complex shift
- Saved on
- 2020-09-24
- Modifed on
- 2020-09-24
- Administrated by
-
Fok Michel
- Abstract
- This speech provides firstly a quick overview of agriculture in China, and then it shares a brief analysis of cotton production under restructuring in a context where the strengthening of agriculture has gained momentum. The very recent measures targeted at strengthening agriculture are assessed through the prism of sustainability, namely the three pillars of social, environmental and economic aspects commonly acknowledged. The contemplated actions to enhance agriculture, with implications for cotton production, look like a set of challenges whose chances of being successfully overcome are appraised through a retrospective analysis of a few achievements related to former challenges.
In China, agriculture lacks attractiveness for several decades since economy has been liberalized. Rural families on tiny farms lag behind in terms of income; they suffer from a continuously growing income gap in spite of an increasing share of wages through off-farm activities. Families have been abandoning farming, making land available to increase the size of remaining farms while stronger labor constraint implies that the mechanization of more cultivation practices has become more crucial than ever.
Cotton production, especially in the two traditional production regions of Yellow River Valley and Yangtze River Valley, is particularly touched by the described evolution of agriculture. It has become less and less attractive in front of competing crops, notably cereal crops, for lack of governmental support, for increased costs of labour, of fertilizers as well as of insecticides in spite of, or because of almost twenty years of Bt cotton use.
Agricultural policy measures elaborated in March 2016 can be related to each of the three sustainability pillars. More precisely, about half of the measures correspond to one of the three social, environmental and economic dimensions, and the other half falls in between two dimensions.
Retrospective analysis of a few innovations like China-specific technique of transplanting, the widespread use of hybrid cultivars, the evolution of insecticide spraying devices, the development of cultivation machines adapted to moderate scale farming (although breakthrough achievement in mechanized harvesting has yet to come) point out a successful process of recurrent technology development based on a huge scientific and technical network motivated by an important potential market.
In the last decades, China has demonstrated its capabilities to overcome technical challenges, but many challenges ahead, related to measures recently announced fall out of the technical sphere (like decentralization of land contract, insurance, credit guaranty…). Organizational and institutional innovations are required; they call upon successful interaction between producers and other stakeholders, be they public or private, and which should differ from top-down and administratively-oriented procedures.
- English abstract
- This speech provides firstly a quick overview of agriculture in China, and then it shares a brief analysis of cotton production under restructuring in a context where the strengthening of agriculture has gained momentum. The very recent measures targeted at strengthening agriculture are assessed through the prism of sustainability, namely the three pillars of social, environmental and economic aspects commonly acknowledged. The contemplated actions to enhance agriculture, with implications for cotton production, look like a set of challenges whose chances of being successfully overcome are appraised through a retrospective analysis of a few achievements related to former challenges.
In China, agriculture lacks attractiveness for several decades since economy has been liberalized. Rural families on tiny farms lag behind in terms of income; they suffer from a continuously growing income gap in spite of an increasing share of wages through off-farm activities. Families have been abandoning farming, making land available to increase the size of remaining farms while stronger labor constraint implies that the mechanization of more cultivation practices has become more crucial than ever.
Cotton production, especially in the two traditional production regions of Yellow River Valley and Yangtze River Valley, is particularly touched by the described evolution of agriculture. It has become less and less attractive in front of competing crops, notably cereal crops, for lack of governmental support, for increased costs of labour, of fertilizers as well as of insecticides in spite of, or because of almost twenty years of Bt cotton use.
Agricultural policy measures elaborated in March 2016 can be related to each of the three sustainability pillars. More precisely, about half of the measures correspond to one of the three social, environmental and economic dimensions, and the other half falls in between two dimensions.
Retrospective analysis of a few innovations like China-specific technique of transplanting, the widespread use of hybrid cultivars, the evolution of insecticide spraying devices, the development of cultivation machines adapted to moderate scale farming (although breakthrough achievement in mechanized harvesting has yet to come) point out a successful process of recurrent technology development based on a huge scientific and technical network motivated by an important potential market.
In the last decades, China has demonstrated its capabilities to overcome technical challenges, but many challenges ahead, related to measures recently announced fall out of the technical sphere (like decentralization of land contract, insurance, credit guaranty…). Organizational and institutional innovations are required; they call upon successful interaction between producers and other stakeholders, be they public or private, and which should differ from top-down and administratively-oriented procedures.