BEIJING: China's total cotton-growing area this year is likely to rise 4.1 percent from a year earlier to 5.17 million hectares, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences released on Wednesday.
Cotton farmers were still waiting to see whether to plant on an additional 40,000 hectares of land, said the Cotton Research Institute under CAAS in the report published on industry website www.cottonchina.org.
The forecast, based on a January survey of farmers in 16 major producing provinces and cities, is lower than the China Cotton Association's earlier forecast of 5.64 million hectares, and also below the Ministry of Agriculture's target for the year of 5.33 million hectares.
Unstable cotton prices, high labour costs, and a lack of minimum purchase price protectation had challenged the willingness of farmers to plant the crop, said the report.
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