China's Cotton Area Seen Lower

WASHINGTON - Mar 7/05 - SNS -- Recent surveys by Ministry of Agriculture and China Cotton Research Institute (CRI) concluded Chinese farmers intent to plant 11.5% and 16.9% fewer hectares respectively, putting cotton area between 4.78 to 5.05 million hectares from the 5.69 million hectares in 2004-05.

CRI's survey covered 3628 cotton farmers in 246 townships in 121 large cotton-producing counties. In the three cotton planting regions, the planted area in the Yellow River region is expect to decrease more than in any other area -- down by 20%; followed by the Yangtze River region (-17%) and the Northwest (-4.2%.) Analyzing the decreases by provinces, Henan is expected to experience the largest decrease -- down by 29.3%, following by Anhui (-21.3%), Shandong (-18%), Hubei (-17.6%), Hebei (-10%), Jiangsu (-6.6%), and Xinjiang (-4.2%).

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