Bulletin on the National Cotton Output in 2021

National Bureau of Statistics of China

December 14, 2021

According to the result of nationwide statistical survey (the cotton sown area of Xinjiang was acquired through remote sensing survey) in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) of China, the total cotton sown area, yield per unit area, and total cotton output in 2021 are as follows:

I. The total cotton sown area stood at 3,028.1 thousand hectares (45,422 thousand mu), down by 140.8 thousand hectares (2,112 thousand mu) or a decrease of 4.4 percent compared with that in 2020.

II. The cotton yield per unit area amounted to 1,892.6 kg/ha (126.2 kg/mu), up by 27.4 kg/ha (1.8 kg/mu) or an increase of 1.5 percent compared with that in 2020.

III. The total cotton output accounted for 5,731 thousand tons, down by 180 thousand tons or a decrease of 3.0 percent compared with that in 2020.

National Cotton Output in 2021
Regions	Sown Areas (1000 hectares)	Yield per Unit Area (kg/ha)	Total Outputs (10,000tons)
National Total	3028.1	1892.6	573.1
Beijing
Tianjin	3.7	1085.1	0.4
Hebei	139.8	1142.4	16.0
Shanxi
Inner Mongolia
Liaoning
Jilin
Heilongjiang
Shanghai
Jiangsu	5.8	1362.2	0.8
Zhejiang	4.0	1391.5	0.6
Anhui	34.4	845.8	2.9
Fujian
Jiangxi	11.0	1557.8	1.7
Shandong	110.2	1272.9	14.0
Henan	11.5	1215.4	1.4
Hubei	120.7	902.4	10.9
Hunan	60.2	1337.9	8.0
Guangdong
Guangxi	1.1	1038.3	0.1
Hainan
Chongqing
Sichuan	2.1	960.7	0.2
Guizhou
Yunnan
Tibet
Shaanxi
Gansu	16.2	1882.8	3.1
Qinghai
Ningxia
Xinjiang	2506.1	2046.4	512.9
Notes: 1. Due to automatic round-off, the national total is not equal to the total of provincial production. 2. The cotton output of Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Fujian, Guizhou and Shaanxi is not listed because it is less than 1000 tons; there is no cotton production in Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Guangdong, Hainan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Tibet, Qinghai, and Ningxia.

Explanation on Cotton Output Survey

The national total cotton output was the sum of cotton outputs of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).

1. Survey Methods

The statistics of cotton output adopted a combined statistical method, i.e, remote sensing survey and sample survey for the main producing areas, and comprehensive statistics for the non-main producing areas. Survey objects included land segments, agricultural production households and agricultural holdings. For Xinjiang, sown area data was acquired through remote sensing survey, while data of yield per unit area was acquired through sample survey. For the other areas, sown area data and data of yield per unit area were acquired through comprehensive statistics, carried out by Statistics Bureau of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).

Starting 2014, the NBS has carried out cotton remote sensing measurement in Xinjiang. Through high and medium spatial resolution multi temporal satellite remote sensing images combined with ground sampling survey, the cotton planting area in Xinjiang has been measured. The field survey of cotton remote sensing survey in Xinjiang includes more than 2000 samples, with a total of more than 500,000 mu of investigated plots.

2. Field Measurement Method

According to The Statistical Report System of Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery, the survey of yield per unit area of main cotton varieties was conducted through field measurement and household survey.

Field measurement conducted a survey in random sample sites of the acreage survey. When the maturity stage of cotton approaching, the output of every piece of land growing cotton would be estimated, by means of systematic sampling grouped by yield per unit area, and ranked by accumulated acreage, 5 representative land segments were selected as field measurement plots. After the maturity of cotton, three small plots were selected artificially, and the yield per unit area of cotton was obtained by counting cotton bolls, weighting, estimating the losses, etc.

Household survey was carried out in random sample sites of the acreage survey. When the maturity stage of cotton approaching, the output of land segments of every household in the sample sites would be estimated, then the yield per unit area was obtained, and according to which, the average yield per unit area of each household was estimated. After the maturity of cotton, through systematic sampling which ranked by the average yield per unit area of each household and grouped by accumulated acreage, 10 households were selected, and after cotton picking, the cotton sown area, yield, sales, storing amount, own use amount of the households would be registered to calculate the yield per unit area. The Survey Offices at provincial level of NBS estimated the average yield per unit area of the province (autonomous regions and municipalities) according to yields of selected land segments.