According to a new survey from the China Cotton Association (CCA), more than one in six growers in the country’s major areas of production plan on reducing the amount of land they dedicate to cotton cultivation in 2011. Approximately one in 10 respondents said they hadn’t yet decided on whether or not they would cut back on their cotton acreage next year.

CCA believes that those figures show that the Chinese government should establish policies that encourage the planting of cotton and make a concerted effort to ensure that the local textile industry has a sufficient supply of raw materials in the future.

It’s easy to understand why some growers are foregoing cotton as a crop in spite of record-high prices, since so many were devastated by inclement weather that lowered the quality of their crop, or destroyed it completely. Cotton cultivation suffers because the government already subsidizes grain production, often making it a less profitable crop than wheat or corn.