Henan, China's third largest cotton and grains producing province, is on a 24-hour alert as its crops enter a high period of the pest season, the China Cotton Association said Thursday (Jul 8), citing a Henan Agriculture Office emergency notice.

The Henan pests include cotton mirid bugs, rice plant hoppers, rice leaf rollers, second-generation rice stem borers, third-generation corn borers, corn leaf aphids, third-generation armyworms and beet armyworms, the statement said.

The association did not say if cotton output was likely to be affected, but unfavorable weather had already driven prices to a record RMB18,340 (US$2,707) a tonne in late May.

Cotton prices have eased since as the government moved to raise cotton import quotas and readied state reserves to cool the market.

In the first five months of the year, China imported 1.37 million tonnes of cotton, up 141% on the January-May period last year.

Cotton-planted areas are stable or slightly above last year's level nationally, according to the USDA.

But per-unit profit for cotton has remained lower than for wheat and corn in the Yellow River region, which includes the central China province of Henan, where cotton-planted areas have declined 12% on-year.

China is the world's largest producer and importer of cotton.