China's Largest Cotton Group in XinjiangThe Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps produced a total of 693,900 tons of cotton in 2000, or one-sixth of the country's total, latest statistics show.Set up in the 1950s in the desert of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the corps is the largest economic association of agriculture, industry and commerce in China, with some one million farming workers. The corps has raised its cotton production by large margin since 1982 by using mulching film and better strains of seed, according to the corps' agricultural section. During the last five years, the corps' cotton output saw an annual increase of 12.7 percent. Last year the corps held a half stake in the country's total cotton exports, corps official said. The corps plans to boost its cotton yield to 800,000 tons a year and become China's most important cotton producing and export base, sources said. |
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