Ministry of China Agriculture has set the “Eleventh Five Years Plan” for domestic cotton industry.

The target is to keep the cotton planting land no less than 85 million Chinese mu, to increase the yield to over 80 kgs from currently 75 kgs per mu, and to achieve productivity of 7 million tons cotton, finally to meet 60-70 percent of the country’s cotton demand by domestic growth.

This target offers big challenges and great chances simultaneously. In last 20 years, cotton yield increased from 53 kgs in 1998 to 75 kgs in 2005, with 2 percent average increase a year.

Now the yield is required to increase from 75 kgs to 80 kgs in next 5 years; it means the cotton yield must achieve an average growth of 1.3 percent a year.

The ministry stated that the main measures to increase yield was to carry out a regional strategy of “promoting the central, consolidating the south and developing the west”, so to boost the cooperative development in the three main producing areas of Yangtze River valley, Yellow River valley and northwest inland cotton planting region.

Cotton planting land should be stabilized and will be properly extended during the 5 planned years, meanwhile the gain in cotton production among these planting areas should be homogenized.

The ministry also insisted that cotton industry should make great efforts to generalizing better varieties, high yield and high efficient cultivable pattern, and explore the potential of those land with low and middle leveled productivity.