Brief Introduction

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Cotton is one of the most important economy crops in China. Cotton is not only in relation to people's life, but also to income of cotton farmers and economic development of cotton planting zones, and to national textile supply and foreign exchange income, it's regarded highly by the central government.

Since 1980s, there are about 800 counties, 50 million farmers and 0.2 billion agriculture population to deal with cotton production in China. In 1950s, China's cotton planting area was about 5.5 million hectares; in 1960s and 1970s, it's about 4.7 million hectares; in 1980s,China cotton production had a rapid development, and in 1984,cotton planting area reached to 6.92 million hectares; since 1990s cotton area keeps in 5.5 million hectares, and cotton production is mainly located in Xinjiang Autonomous Zone, the middle and lower stream of the Yangtse drainage area, and the Yellow and Huai rivers' drainage area.

China cotton yield has a rapid increase in the past four decades. In 1950s, the average yield was 225 kg/ha; in the middle of 1980s, cotton yield was over 750kg/ha; in the middle of 1990s, cotton yield was 900kg/ha.China has been one of the most important cotton production countries in the world since 1980s. China cotton yield has been stood in the precedent of the world. Since the foundation of the People's Republic of China, the All Ferdaration of Supply & Marketing Cooperatives (AFSMC) has been authorized by the central government to operate cotton as monopoly entities. Nowadays there are 27 provincial Cotton & Jute Corporations, 214 middle-city-level Cotton & Jute Corporations, over 800 county-level Cotton & Jute Corporations, 2615 cotton gins and 13767 cotton purchasing stations in China. The capacity of cotton production and ginning is 6 million tons. For the past decades, Supply & Marketing Cooperatives have devoted a lot of personnel, material and capital to cotton production, purchasing, ginning, testing, warehouse and marketing, they have accumulated abundant experiences and come into being a whole cotton circulation system. Supply & Marketing Cooperatives have done a lot of works in reinforcing scientific backup for the increase of cotton production and becoming a country socialization service system. There are more than 0.66 million employees in all China Cotton & Jute Corporations until 1997. They have given a great contribution to the production of China's industry and agriculture and meeting people's needs.