page_title: Cotton production in China
section_title: Area under cotton
hierarchical_section_title: Cotton production in China / Area under cotton
caption_attribution_description: English: Cotton fields along Hwy G106/G316 in Yangxin County, a few km north of the Fushui (富水) River crossing (between Longgang and Futu). Cotton is usually grown in fairly small patches there, alternating with other crops. 中文: 棉田在湖北省阳新县
context_page_description: Cotton production in China pertains to cotton which is the prime cash crop of China. Its production is the highest in the world since 1982 until recently overtaken by India. Twenty-four of the 35 provinces of China grow cotton with nearly 300 million people involved in its production. It is the main input for textile industry of the country with cotton textiles now accounting for 80% use vis-a-vis 95% in the 1950s. The cotton textile industry employs over 10 million people. Its production in 2012–13 was 7.6 million tons but in 2013–14 it dropped to 7 million tons. Historically, its introduction in China is considered a 'southernization', crop which originated from southern Asia during the "proto-globalization" period.
context_section_description: The cotton sown area accounts for about 30 percent of the total sown area of all the various cash crops. The major regions, according where cotton is a prime crop are the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the Yangtze River Basin (including provinces of Jiangxi and Hubei), and the Huang-Huai Region (mainly in provinces of Hebei, Henan, and Shandong). However, according to agroclimatic regions they are under three zones of the northwest inland cotton region, the Yellow River valley region and the Yangtze River valley region, which together account for 99.5% area under cotton with a total yield of 99.7%. The area planted in 2012 was 5.3 million hectares and the average lint yield was 1,438 kilograms (3,170 lb) per ha.
caption: Cotton cultivation in Yangxin County
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