The homeland of cotton was in India, which made the Mughal Empire the richest country in the world in the 17th century. In the 19th century, it brought back painful memories of blood and tears to Indians. Lord William Bentinck, the British colonial governor in India, once said that the bones of the cotton weavers made the plains of India white.
India has a large population and abundant solar and thermal resources, and has excellent conditions for the development of cotton planting. China is a big country in the textile industry and the largest consumer of cotton. What is the current situation of the cotton planting industry in China and India?
Let's start with India. Since the 50s of the last century, India's cotton planting area has maintained the world's first position, but its yield is low, and the total cotton output is often behind China, until 2015, when it surpassed China to become the world's largest cotton producer. In recent years, China and India have alternately taken the lead in cotton production, each maintaining a slight advantage over the other.
Cotton is grown in all states in India, among which Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are the most important cotton producing areas in India, accounting for more than 70% of India's total cotton production. There are more than 6 million cotton farmers in India, with more than 40 million people engaged in production and trade activities related to the cotton industry. Due to the large span of cotton cultivation areas, the soil and climatic conditions vary significantly, and the sowing and harvesting seasons are also different.
Before the mid-90s of the last century, India's cotton planting area has been in the range of 100 million to 120 million mu. After entering the new century, India's cotton planting area has risen rapidly, and in 2021, the cotton planting area exceeded 200 million mu in one fell swoop, hitting a record high. In 2023, the planted area will decline slightly, still above 180 million mu, accounting for one-quarter of India's arable land. 2014 was the peak year for India's cotton production, with a record 6.78 million tonnes.
Retailization and low yields are the distinctive features of India's cotton farming industry. Cotton farmers plant on a small scale, usually only a few acres or about ten acres of land, and most of them are mainly picked by hand. Many cotton-producing areas rely on natural rainfall, and climatic conditions have a great impact on the planting and harvesting of cotton. In recent years, India's cotton yield has been maintained at an average of 30 kg/mu, which is far worse than that of the mainland.
Currently, India is the second largest consumer of cotton after China, with 5.44 million tonnes of cotton produced in 2023, an increase of 130,000 tonnes from the previous year. Exports have also fallen from one million tonnes in the past to 400,000 tonnes due to excessive domestic consumption.
Looking at the cotton planting industry in the mainland, since the 80s, the continuous increase in cotton production has promoted the take-off of the domestic textile and garment industry and absorbed a large number of employed people. In the 90s, clothing and textiles were the mainland's most competitive bulk export products, and the export volume once accounted for one-third of the total foreign commodity exports, which played a positive role in the mainland's foreign trade surplus and increased employment.
Cotton cultivation in mainland China is divided into three major cotton-producing areas, namely Xinjiang cotton area, North China cotton area and Yangtze River basin cotton area, with relatively high industrial concentration, and the total output of these three cotton areas accounts for more than 99% of the country. In the past decade, the cotton industry has continued to concentrate in Xinjiang's production areas, and the proportion of output has continued to increase.
Recently, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the cotton planting area in mainland China will be 41.8 million mu in 2023, a decrease of 3.18 million mu from the previous year. The total output of cotton was 5.62 million tons, a decrease of 360,000 tons over the previous year. In terms of planting area, India's cotton planting area is four times that of China, but the output is not as good as China's, and the fundamental reason is that our output is higher. The national cotton yield per unit area is 134 kg/mu, which is 30 kg/mu in India.
Factors such as the renewal of cotton varieties and the popularization of planting management techniques have contributed to the increase in cotton yield across the country. Especially in the cotton producing area of Xinjiang on the mainland, the planting area in 2023 will be 35.54 million mu, with a total output of 5.12 million tons, accounting for 9% of the country's total output.
Xinjiang's cotton output has been stable at more than 5 million tons for five consecutive years, ranking first in the country in terms of area, total output and yield. In particular, the yield is as high as 144 kg/mu, far exceeding that of India and the United States.
The machine picking rate of cotton in Xinjiang is more than 85%, which is higher than the international average. The cotton fibres produced are produced with an average length of 29 mm, resulting in a high-quality product that can compete internationally.
Considering the huge consumption of cotton on the mainland, there is a gap of nearly 2 million tons per year, and it has to be imported from the United States, India, Uzbekistan and other countries.
Considering that the gap between India's total cotton output and China's is very weak, and the cotton yield is also increasing, it is not surprising that India's cotton output will surpass China again next year!