Cotton sowing goes mechanized in Xinjiang

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a major cotton base in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has been improving the quality of cotton by introducing new cotton varieties and advancing farming technologies and facilities.

File photo taken on March 27 shows a seeder planting cotton seeds in a field in Yeyungou village, Luntai county, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Cotton farmers in the prefecture, where mechanization in the plowing, sowing, and harvesting of cotton has basically been realized, have recently started spring farming and preparations. A key national production base for quality cotton, the prefecture plans to plant over 3.3 million mu of cotton in 2021. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Cotton spring sowing has been in full swing across Xinjiang in recent days. In the vast cotton fields of the 53rd regiment of the Third Division of the XPCC in Tumxuk, the western part of Xinjiang, farmers have been busy plowing cotton seeds with seeding machines. The regiment plans to plant 1 million mu (about 66,666.7 hectares) of cotton in the 2021 cotton spring sowing season, which is expected to end in mid-April.

The XPCC ranks as one of the top cotton bases in the country in terms of level of mechanization, planting scale, water-saving irrigation, and the use of modern technologies, including the Beidou satellite navigation system. By deploying 2,500 advanced cotton pickers for cotton farmland covering an area of over 10.8 million mu, the XPCC has become the largest base of mechanical cotton harvesting in China.

Statistics indicate that in 2020, the XPCC produced over 2.13 million tons of cotton, accounting for 36.1 percent of the country’s total. By the end of 2019, the rate of mechanization in the plowing, sowing, and harvesting of cotton in the XPCC reached 94.3 percent.

The XPCC attaches great importance to cotton quality, and aims to make its cotton a well-matched rival to that produced in the United States and Australia and also expand its brand influence and market competitiveness in the coming five years, according to a guideline released recently.