Key Cotton Planting Techniques in the Heilonggang Region During the 13th Five-Year Plan

The Heilonggang region of our province encompasses 50 counties (cities, districts) across 6 prefecture-level cities, covering an area of 34,000 sq km with a population of approximately 18.5 million, accounting for 18.5% and 26.4% of the province respectively. Located in the warm temperate zone, this region is rich in light and heat resources, with rain and heat occurring in the same season, and it accounts for 60% of the province's plain area. With relatively abundant arable land per capita, it is an important national agricultural planting area. Among these, Handan, Xingtai, Hengshui, and Cangzhou are the main distribution areas of Hebei Province's remaining cotton acreage.

Due to the low-lying terrain and poor drainage in the Heilonggang region, combined with the influence of monsoon climate and low-lying alluvial deposits, groundwater freshwater resources are scarce and severely over-exploited. Drought and flood disasters have historically been frequent, and the region is also commonly affected by the combined hazards of "drought, waterlogging, salinity, and barrenness."

In 2017, cotton planting in the Heilonggang region may usher in development opportunities. To maintain stable development of cotton planting in this region during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and create conditions for expanding scale, the author offers the following views for reference.

I. Guiding Philosophy for Cotton Planting

Based on market demand, firmly grasp the three fundamental tasks of "reducing inputs, ensuring yield, and addressing shortcomings," with "maximizing per-mu income" as the fundamental purpose and "building strong market competitiveness of the product" as the key objective. Fully leverage human initiative in cotton planting, and with "enhancing cotton growers' three major knowledge and skills -- cotton growth patterns and regulation, nutrient supply and demand and fertilization, and pest and disease occurrence patterns and prevention and control" as the primary approach, begin the "historic transformation from mainly physical-labor-based cotton planting to mainly intelligence-based cotton planting." Achieving this "historic transformation to mainly intelligence-based cotton planting" is a long-term gradual process. Operating machinery and equipment can be addressed through socialized services and other channels. Machinery and equipment are important, but human intelligence is more important. Addressing the intelligence shortcomings of cotton growers is the main path out of the cotton planting predicament in the Heilonggang region.

The determination of the guiding philosophy is based on the following assessments: an expected market price of 6-8 yuan per kg of seed cotton will arrive; during the 13th Five-Year Plan, the scale and mechanization level of cotton planting in the Heilonggang region will generally not achieve a qualitative breakthrough; the main body and scale of cotton planting will still be dominated by small-scale farming households (5-15 mu); and during the 13th Five-Year Plan, it will be difficult for breakthrough varieties to be applied on a large scale in production.

Given the harsh cotton planting conditions in the Heilonggang region and the difficulty of consistently ensuring high-quality cotton fiber, meeting the market's demand for high-end fiber quality should not be the primary production goal.

II. Reducing Inputs and Ensuring Yield

With the goal of ensuring a seed cotton yield of 200-300 kg per mu, determine a per-mu capital input of 400-600 yuan, ensuring a baseline of 2 yuan input per 1 kg of seed cotton, building strong market competitiveness of the product, and maximizing per-mu income.

In order to achieve the fundamental purpose of maximizing per-mu income in cotton planting, efforts must be made from both "reducing costs" and "ensuring yield." Yield is greatly affected by weather, making it more difficult to ensure. However, cost reduction is entirely within human control and can be relatively easily achieved with determination. Since the era of high cotton prices has ended, cotton planting without regard to input costs is also a thing of the past. At the current stage, cotton planting should be characterized by "every yuan of input matters, every jin of yield counts." Except for irresistible natural disasters, human errors in cotton management should be minimized. Inputs that should not be made, that are optional, or that yield more loss than gain must be firmly avoided. For example: "equal-ratio compound fertilizers of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ('three 15%', 'three 17%', 'three 19%')" are inputs that should not be made; "excessively detailed pruning" is optional; and "blindly following others in spraying pesticides" yields more loss than gain.

Introduce the "budget system" from economics, set up a "master switch" for income and expenditure, profit and loss. All expenditures within the budget are generally necessary and have relatively good expectations.

1. In dry and barren land without irrigation conditions, the yield target is 200 kg of seed cotton per mu. Select early-maturing, small-plant-type varieties, with a density of 6,000 plants per mu, leveraging population advantages to ensure 45,000 effective bolls per mu. Use foliar spraying and wide-row urea solution irrigation after rain as the main "magic weapons" for coping with drought, incorporate them into the plan, and make preparations. Under conditions of no land rental, no hired labor, and not counting the labor input of cotton-growing households as an expense, strictly control per-mu capital input to within 400 yuan. If only 150 kg of yield can be ensured, per-mu input must not exceed 300 yuan. Although per-mu income is relatively low due to low yield, each household can plant more cotton to increase total income.

2. In medium-to-low fertility cotton fields with irrigation capability during drought, ensure a yield of 250 kg, with a density of 4,000-5,000 plants, ensuring more than 50,000 effective bolls per mu. Per-mu capital input is still controlled at 400 yuan; in addition, land can be rented on a larger scale to increase total income. If the rent is 200 yuan per mu, the cotton planting area can be doubled, and after amortization, the per-mu capital input becomes 500 yuan.

3. For cotton-growing households confident of ensuring a yield of 300 kg, ensure more than 60,000 effective bolls per mu, with a density of 3,000-5,000 plants per mu depending on soil fertility and irrigation conditions. Per-mu capital input can be controlled at 600 yuan, with 100 yuan for expanded land rental and 100 yuan for auxiliary hired labor.

4. The per-mu capital input of 400 yuan includes 100 yuan for fertilizer, 100 yuan for pesticides (including herbicides, chemical regulators, ripening agents, etc.), and 200 yuan for land preparation, sowing, cotton stalk crushing and returning to the field, mechanical inter-row operations, irrigation fees, plastic film, seed costs, etc. Fertilizer and pesticides are the major components in reducing inputs.

III. Maintaining Sustainable Production

1. Returning cotton stalks to the field. Cotton stalk yield is generally 1.5 times the seed cotton yield, and it is the only organic fertilizer source in cotton-growing areas. Returning cotton stalks to the field can tap and enhance soil production potential. It is a strategic measure for soil fertility improvement that concerns the overall and long-term development of cotton production, and it is also a fundamental measure for achieving reduced inputs and ensured yield, conforming to the green production concept of conserving resources and protecting the environment. Results from extensive long-term practice have proven that continuous return of cotton stalks to the field allows organic matter, available potassium, and medium and trace elements needed by cotton to accumulate in the soil without additional supplementation. Moreover, returning cotton stalks to the field does not cause cotton Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt to worsen year by year; on the contrary, due to improved soil fertility, the disease resistance of cotton is enhanced.