China News Service, Urumqi, May 6 (Tao Shuanke) The vivid expression of "World cotton sees China, Chinese cotton sees Xinjiang" profoundly reveals Xinjiang's key role in the global cotton industry. Cotton is not only the main source of economic resources for Xinjiang farmers, but also an important pillar industry for promoting regional economic development.

With the advancement of science and technology and the optimization of industrial structure, Xinjiang's cotton industry is taking a new attitude to help local economic development and injecting strong impetus into the cotton market across the country and even the world.

The Xinjiang cotton industry is ushering in new development opportunities. Driven by the triple driving of policy escort, technological empowerment and market regulation, Xinjiang cotton fields have shifted from "labor-intensive" to "technology-intensive".

Statistics show that in 2024, the cotton planting area in Xinjiang was 36.719 million mu, a steadily increase from the sowing area last year. The total mechanization rate exceeded 97%, and the machining rate exceeded 90%. The planting cost has dropped from the traditional model of 1,800 yuan/mu to 1,300 yuan/mu of the "smart cotton field".

"Smart Spring Sowing" solves the traditional planting problem

At present, cotton in southern Xinjiang has entered the field management period, and all townships in Yingjisha County, Kashgar Prefecture use plant protection drones to carry out spraying operations, and do a good job in field water, fertilizer, pest control and other work. In the cotton field in the wasteland village of Yingyeer Township, the county, drone pilot Dawutijiang Abulaiti controlled the drone carrying 50 liters of pesticide to take off and spray pesticide evenly. In just 2 minutes, the spraying operation of one acre of cotton field was completed.

In Changji National Agricultural Science and Technology Park, cotton farmer Ma Jianjun monitored the soil moisture changes of his 500-acre cotton fields through mobile APP. "After using the intelligent water and fertilizer system last year, the yield per mu of seed cotton increased by 50 kilograms, and this year, 200 acres of arable land in the neighboring village have also been transferred."

Walking into the digital cotton construction base in Dunkuantan Town, Kuqa City, the demonstration field has set up atmospheric plant growth detectors, insect condition detectors, spore detectors and other equipment. Experts from China Agricultural University and Hebei Agricultural University and staff from a company are demonstrating the installation of soil moisture detectors in the fields. The installation of these equipment will become the "cliffe" and "stethoscope" in the cotton production and management process of demonstration fields, and monitor and remind the soil moisture of cotton fields, crop seedling conditions, and insect conditions in the fields.

Xie Haojie, director of the Aksu Agricultural Technology Promotion Center, said that this year, Aksu City has put into use of various agricultural machinery such as diversion ground preparation machines and high-performance seeders. While completing the cotton seeding task with high quality and efficiency, it will promote the extension of traditional farming and harvesting to the entire production process of high-quality land preparation, precision sowing, precise fertilization, efficient plant protection, combined harvesting, etc., to promote cotton quality improvement and efficiency improvement, and cotton farmers' income and wealth.

Planning a "combination punch" to deal with the differences in soil moisture

Since April, as the temperature picks up and the soil moisture is good, Xinjiang cotton sowing work has been rapidly unfolding from south to north.

Kangsuwat Village, Chepaizi Town, Wusu City, Tacheng District, northern Xinjiang actively promotes the application of new agricultural machinery and new technologies in cotton sowing through various methods. Gong Chengjiang, secretary of the village party branch, introduced: "This year, we introduced the side sealing sowing technology and used a 5-meter-wide film for sowing. This model not only has significant water-saving effect, but also can achieve multiple rows of sowing in 4 rows of one film and 6 rows of one film. In addition, the widened film design helps to increase the ground temperature and accelerate the emergence of seedlings."

The ultra-wide film reduces soil moisture evaporation, thereby increasing soil moisture content, increasing soil temperature, and conducive to the growth and development of cotton. Therefore, the ultra-wide film shows better results in cotton cultivation in the Tacheng area.

In the cotton fields in Manas County, cotton farmers use satellite remote sensing, soil moisture sensors, insect monitoring and other intelligent equipment to monitor data in real time to transmit accurate farmland information to farmers in a timely manner. In the high-standard farmland of Damiao Village Economic Cooperative in Beiwucha Town, the county, a new mechanized precision seeding machine equipped with the Beidou navigation system has efficiently completed a number of processes such as laying plastic film, drip irrigation belts and precision seeding, greatly improving the accuracy and efficiency of spring sowing operations.

In Maigaiti County, Kashgar Prefecture, cotton farmers use the "satellite remote sensing + Internet of Things" drought warning system in order to achieve appropriate seeds.

The head of relevant departments of the Xinjiang Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs introduced that in cotton sowing innovation this year, the Beidou Navigation intelligent precision seeder and sowing disc cross-type duckbills were transformed, and the application of dry sowing and wet output and integrated water and fertilizer precision control technology has been popularized, which has significantly improved sowing efficiency and seedling quality.

Now, Xinjiang cotton planting is undergoing a key transformation from "scale expansion" to "quality change". Under the synergistic role of policy guarantee, technological empowerment and market mechanism, Xinjiang cotton has shown a good trend of steady expansion of industrial scale, continuous improvement of quality and efficiency, and sustainable development of the entire industrial chain.

"This year, the mechanization level of cotton sowing is very high. The complete cotton production system and good planting comparative benefits have enhanced the enthusiasm of cotton farmers to plant." The head of the relevant department of the Xinjiang Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said that this year, Xinjiang will further optimize the regional layout of cotton planting, and cotton production will be further concentrated in 34 cotton-optimized major producing counties and 73 group (agricultural) farms. The agricultural and rural departments have formulated high-yield and high-quality cotton cultivation technical plans, established a production and cultivation technical route that is compatible with machine-picked cotton, and promoted the transformation of Xinjiang cotton to mechanized, intensive and standardized production.