Policy, Institution And Technology In The Growth Of Jiangsu Cotton Industry

This thesis dealt with the roies of policy and institution, technology and human resource as well as three traditional factors of capital, land and labor force in the development of Jiangsu cotton industry since the foundation of People Republic of China, explored the sources of cotton growth, probed the possibility of increasing productivity and competitiveness of cotton industry, and offered some countermeasures to promote the development of Jiangsu cotton industry.Study shows that varieties, cultivation techniques and fertilizer input contributed 34.5% to the gross output growth of cotton (GOGC) from 1963 to 2001, the effective irrigation of farmland contributed 30.6% to the GOGC. The varieties, cultivation techniques and usage of fertilizer as well as improvement of irrigation facility and sound climate condition totally contributed as high as 89.2% to the GOGC, and the land decrease made the cotton production drop by 11.1%. The influence of labor force input and mechanical animal power input on cotton was not notable. Among the policy and institution factors that indirectly influenced cotton output, the household responsibility system and the increasing number of students graduated from elementary schools were the major source of cotton output growth, contributing about 18% respectively to the GOGC. The purchase price oi" cotton contributed very little (only 0.4%), meanwhile the taxation and fee made cotton output growth drop by 4.4%. The district proportion of cotton output increased in north area to the Huai River and the Lixiahe area, while dropped in the coastal cotton area. This structural change of the area layout contributed 30.9% to the GOGC.From 1978, the purchase price for cotton in Jiangsu was raised greatly reaching its historical highest point in 1995-1997, 8.8 times of that in 1950. Calculating on the fixed value of 1950, the price reached its maximum value in 1995, but only increased by 78.7% from that in 1950. Econometric analysis shows that the annual purchase price had a greater influence on the cotton output than the purchase price one year before. Further analysis indicates the purchase price didn't play an active role in the planting area of cotton. By contrast, it did play an important role in cotton output per hectare of soil and the raise of cotton purchase price could largely accelerate the input of fertilizer. In the long term, low purchase price policy in Jiangsu caused the income loss of peasants. From 1963 to 1998, cotton farmers suffered welfare loss of 4.13 billion yuan with the fixed value of 1950, and 11.93 billion yuan according to the annual price. The burden of cotton tax is not high for Jiangsu cotton agriculture, stabilizing at 3%~5% or so over a long period of time. But the taxation fee grew fast in rural areas and largely surpassed agricultural tax before reform. After the reform of rural taxation and fee, the aggregate burden of cotton taxation and fee dropped deeply. However, comparing with the policy of "no agricultural tax but agricultural subsidy" abroad, the collection of agricultural tax decreased the cotton output in Jiangsu and depressed competitiveness of products, which in turn made the cotton of Jiangsu be placed in the unequally rivalry position in international market.The impact of three kinds of institutional arrangements including collaboration, collectivism and household responsibility system was analyzed. In the time of collaboration, increasing number of students graduated from elementary schools contributed as high as 67.5% to the GOGC, and the increase of cotton-planting land contributed 42.6% to the GOGC. On the contrary, the proportion of teamwork repressed 37.0% cotton output increase. In the period of collectivism (1959-1978), the growth of cotton output fully depended on input of land because of the low efficiency. In the following rural institutional reform period (1978~1984), household responsibility system contributed almost 70% to the GOGC. New varieties, district structure modulation, farmland irrigation facility improvement...