1980年以来中国棉花生产格局发生了明显变化,在空间上逐步向新疆集中,这一变化不仅促进了新疆地区耕地的扩张,也强化了新疆地区在我国农业生产中的地域功能,同时还加速了该地区的荒漠化进程。目前对这一现象的研究主要立足于区域尺度,关注棉花生产对当地农民收入的影响以及区域棉花产业的优势与发展战略,对生产格局变化的成因还缺乏清晰认识。本文从生产要素配置效率的角度,利用全国农产品成本收益数据,通过比较全国主要植棉省市棉花生产中土地生产率、劳动生产率和资本产出率的差异,来探讨这一现象的成因。结果表明:劳动生产率的区域差异是市场经济条件下中国棉花生产向新疆集中的主要原因。这一结论对于判断中国棉花生产格局变化的未来趋势以及其他农产品生产格局变化研究都具有一定的意义。

Over the past 30 years, the cotton production in China has gradually concentrated in Xinjiang under market economy. This change in spatial pattern of cotton production has accelerated the expansion of cropland in Xinjiang and consolidated the regional function in agricultural production in China. Moreover, it has promoted the desertification in western China. Although much research work has been conducted on the expansion of cropland and cotton production in Xinjiang, it mainly focused on regional profit and effects on water resource and environment. The underlying cause of the concentration of cotton production is far from understanding. In market economy, any changes in spatial pattern in agricultural production are the results of regional competition and the regional competition is mainly determined by the production cost, consequently by efficiency and saving of land, capital, and labor. Therefore, a detailed exploration of regional difference in land productivity, labor productivity, and capital productivity in cotton production was conducted in this paper based on the cost and profit data collected by the price department of national development and reform commission. The results indicated that the land productivity for Xinjiang was higher than the national average but not the highest in 15 cotton-planting provinces of China. The cash capital productivity for Xinjiang was even below the national average. Only the labor productivity for Xinjiang was the highest in all cotton-planting provinces of China. These results imply that the regional disparity of labor productivity in cotton production is the underlying cause of the concentration of China's cotton production in Xinjiang under the market economy. From the conclusion, we can deduce that the concentration of China's cotton production in Xinjiang will continue and the environment will be worsening in the coming years, unless the central and local governments take some concrete measures. This conclusion also suggests that further verification researches should be done on changes in spatial pattern of other crop production in China.