Lives of people in Shihezi, NW China's Xinjiang (2)

Hu Xinliang, a drone operator, pilots his drone to spray insecticide in the cotton fields of Shihezi, northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 1, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Kou Jie)

Xinjiang is the top cotton producer in China and its annual cotton output is more than 5 million tonnes, accounting for 87.3 percent of China's production in 2021. With the continued development of mechanized farming, up to 70 percent of Xinjiang's cotton fields are now able to use machinery to pick cotton during the busy harvest season, with new technologies such as automated irrigation systems also being applied in cotton farming. Shihezi, which has long served as a farming community, is one of the primary production areas for cotton in Xinjiang.