Wide choice of cotton varieties, cotton farmers can choose as needed

Recently, several readers have asked our newspaper for help, seeking to buy seeds of new insect-resistant cotton and hybrid cotton varieties. Due to limited seed sources and a tight market, most readers were unable to get what they wanted. Faced with this year's cotton seed supply situation, how can cotton farmers choose cotton varieties that suit them? After contacting the Crop Cultivation Station of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry and other relevant departments, this author believes that the choice of cotton varieties is still quite wide.

For cotton farmers preparing to practice intercropping and relay intercropping in cotton fields, it is of course best to be able to choose cotton varieties with strong plant growth and good insect resistance, as this can both widen the cotton row spacing, favor the growth of intercrops, and reduce pesticide application, thereby lessening contamination of intercrop products. Hybrid insect-resistant cotton varieties such as Nankang 3 and Zhongmiansuo 29 have these advantages, but due to limited seed sources, combined with artificial speculation on seed prices in some places, the price has risen to 200 yuan per kg. If farmers blindly pursue these varieties, the seed cost alone will mean spending several dozen yuan more per mu. As for some hybrid insect-resistant cotton varieties that have not yet been trial-planted and recognized by the relevant departments of our province, cotton farmers must not blindly introduce them on a large scale, otherwise both lint yield and insect-resistant effect will be difficult to guarantee.

The hybrid cotton variety Suza 16 has strong growth, and many years of large-scale planting have shown that it is very suitable for intercropping and relay intercropping in cotton fields; the insect-resistant cotton variety Sukang 103 has a good insect-resistant effect, and its traits in all respects are quite good. These varieties have relatively more seed sources, and the broad masses of cotton farmers can choose them.

For wheat-relay cotton and pure cotton with a relatively low degree of intercropping and relay intercropping, the choice of varieties is even wider. In recent years, Sumian 9, Sumian 12, Sumian 15, Sumian 16, and Sumian 18, which have been promoted over large areas, all have good yield and quality, and can certainly be chosen.

In townships with a high degree of organization that can carry out concentrated contiguous planting and unified recovery of seed cotton, they can also apply to the local county-level agricultural technology department to organize the planting of the high-quality cotton Yumian 1, so as to develop local industrialized production of high-quality cotton.

Relevant departments especially remind that under the circumstances of relatively tight cotton seeds this year, the broad masses of cotton farmers should further strengthen their awareness of self-protection and buy cotton seeds introduced through regular channels from local agricultural technology departments, so as to ensure stable and relatively high cotton-growing returns under the situation of relatively high cotton prices.