Two of the four largest cotton-growing nations in the world are harvesting markedly smaller crops this year, says the monthly World Agricultural Production report. Low commodity prices are a factor for the reductions in China and Pakistan, along with local conditions. China usually leads the world in cotton but will be in second place behind India this year as output plummets by one-fifth. Pakistan, the fourth-largest producer, will see a 25-percent drop in production, says the USDA. The United States is the third-largest grower.
Cotton plantings were record-low in China, which is struggling with a mammoth government-owed surplus. The government revised its support program to reduce cotton profits, so farmers shifted to crops such as corn and rice, which offered higher returns. Plantings dropped by as much as 50 percent in the Yellow and Yangtze basins. In Pakistan, yields are down 20 percent. “The major factor contributing to the low productivity is the unprecedented infestation of white-fly and cotton leaf curl virus resulting in significant crop damage,” said the USDA. Growers cut back on costly pesticides because of low market prices for cotton. Some farmers plowed under cotton earlier than usual this year to plant wheat, which may be more profitable.