Cotton flowers in Xinjiang bear countless hopes

Cotton, the "white flower" blooming across the Tianshan Mountains, is the most iconic crop of Xinjiang's agriculture. The cotton industry has become a key pillar of Xinjiang's economic growth and a vital pathway for farmers to boost their incomes and achieve prosperity.

A solid foundation

In 2025, Xinjiang's cotton output exceeded 6 million tons for the first time, reaching 6.165 million tons, an 8.4 percent increase from the previous year. The region accounted for 92.8 percent of national cotton production, maintaining a share above 90 percent for four consecutive years.

Behind these impressive numbers lies solid support from breakthroughs in cotton breeding, continuous improvements in production technology, and a steadily reinforced industrial base.

As a major national base for high-quality cotton production, Xinjiang faces challenges such as frequent pest and disease outbreaks and extreme weather. To address these, the region has made variety renewal a top priority for high-quality industrial development.

A results output measurement event for the national major agricultural biological breeding project held in Aksu at the end of 2025, with an expert group evaluating the project's achievements. (Photo provided by Xinjiang Jinfengyuan Seed Industry Co., Ltd.)

In 2025, good news emerged from the exhibition in Aksu: Xinjiang has made major progress in cotton biological breeding, successfully developing over 30 new cotton varieties with high yield, high quality, and stress resistance. Some varieties maintain a high boll-setting rate even under high temperatures, while others produce fiber that meets the Type I standard required by the textile industry.

Scientific variety selection has delivered tangible gains in output and income. By issuing region-specific recommendations for high-yield, high-quality varieties and promoting improved seeds widely, Xinjiang has raised the coverage rate of improved cotton varieties to over 98 percent.

Large-scale mechanized harvesting of new cotton in Manas County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Screenshot of Xinhua News Agency video)

In 2025, the Cotton Research Institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences introduced more than 3,400 domestic and international germplasm resources, developed more than 40 new useful germplasm types with traits such as drought resistance, saline-alkali tolerance, and high temperature resistance, and bred and approved seven new cotton varieties of various types. These breakthrough breeding results were eventually turned into real gains in yield and quality across cotton fields, thanks to a region wide system for propagating and promoting improved seeds. Reports show that seed cotton yield per mu (about 0.067 hectares) in Shaya County rose from 285 kg in 2017 to 442 kg in 2025, with an average income increase of 1,000 yuan per mu, fully realizing the benefits of improved seeds.

At the same time, Xinjiang is accelerating the shift in cotton variety innovation from "experience based selection" to "directed design," carrying out precise evaluation and identification of germplasm resources. This reserves abundant genetic resources for the continuous breeding of breakthrough varieties and ensures a steady flow of vitality for the cotton industry.

Technology empowerment

As the spring breeze blows across the northern and southern Tianshan Mountains, cotton fields have begun sowing one after another. Intelligent seeders move through the fields, revealing a new vision of modern cotton farming. From the traditional labor of "bending down to pick cotton and relying on the weather for a living" to today's fully mechanized, smart agriculture driven production, technology has injected strong momentum into Xinjiang's cotton industry.

Screenshot of Xinhua News Agency video.

　　In 2025, the comprehensive mechanization rate of cotton cultivation, planting, and harvesting in Xinjiang reached 97 percent, with the machine harvesting rate stable above 90 percent. More than 7,500 cotton pickers were used throughout the year, including over 3,100 machines that operated across regions.

In mid-April, the sowing of more than 1.5 million mu (about 100,000 hectares) of cotton in Shawan City, Tacheng Prefecture, began for the new planting season. Beidou navigation enables precision sowing with an error of no more than two cm per kilometer. Additionally, drone plant protection and intelligent drip irrigation have achieved full coverage. Some areas have adopted a "space-air-ground" integrated smart agriculture management system, allowing cotton farmers to monitor soil moisture, seedling conditions, and pest situations in real time via a mobile phone app. This enables full tracking of the cotton growth process and greatly improves the ability to respond to extreme weather.

For cotton farmers in Shaya County, the combination of intelligent machinery and scientific variety selection helped them maintain stable yields and income even during a hot year. In the eyes of these farmers, cotton farming now relies entirely on technology: navigation for sowing, data for management, and machinery for harvesting. Planting is worry free, and harvesting is reliable.

In addition to improved seeds and agricultural machinery, a set of refined cultivation techniques suited to Xinjiang's arid desert environment is becoming more mature, further strengthening the foundation for high cotton yield and quality. In recent years, Xinjiang has vigorously promoted precise water and fertilizer management, widely adopted the dry sowing and wet emergence planting model, and achieved full coverage of integrated water and fertilizer technology in cotton fields. At the same time, key measures such as green pest control, full course chemical regulation, timely topping, and scientific defoliation have been implemented. These measures not only effectively adapt to the dry environment but also significantly improve cotton yield and quality.

The data best illustrate the impact of these technologies: through the application of key techniques, such as dry sowing with wet emergence and integrated water and fertilizer, cotton water use per mu has been reduced by 200 cubic meters, while yield per mu has increased by more than 20 kg. In 2025, Xinjiang's average lint cotton yield per mu reached 158.6 kg, 10 kg higher than the national average, forming a uniquely advantageous cotton production technology system.

From Beidou precision sowing to intelligent water and fertilizer control, from drone field patrol and plant protection to mechanized efficient harvesting, and to the region wide promotion of green and efficient cultivation techniques, Xinjiang's cotton production has achieved full process intelligence, standardization, and intensification from spring plowing to autumn harvest. Technology has become the strongest driver of abundant cotton harvests, higher incomes for cotton farmers, and shared prosperity.

Full chain upgrade

From a single cotton flower to a piece of good fabric, and then to a garment or a home textile product, Xinjiang's cotton industry promotes value addition across the entire industrial chain by extending, supplementing, and strengthening the chain.

Groundbreaking ceremony of the one million spindle spinning project of Kashi Xintou Textile in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (File photo by Reyiding Sulaiman)

　The Party Committee and Government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region place great importance on the development of the cotton industry, guiding the creation of special plans, introducing targeted support policies, strengthening the recruitment of key projects, and optimizing the industrial spatial layout.

At present, Xinjiang has formed a complete industrial chain covering cotton, chemical fiber, spinning, weaving, dyeing and printing, garments, home textiles, and technical textiles.

In the processing and conversion stage, Xinjiang enterprises not only produce high quality lint cotton but also fully utilize byproducts such as cottonseed and cotton stalks. Companies in Shawan, Aksu and other areas carry out deep processing of cottonseed, producing high purity cottonseed oil and cotton protein. In Changji, a technology company uses steam explosion technology to process cotton stalks, with a daily processing capacity of 40 tons, producing materials that can be used for sand fixation and as high value industrial raw materials.

In the spinning and weaving stage, relying on high quality cotton, oil and gas resources, and policy incentives, Wensu County is working to build a new textile industrial base in southern Xinjiang, attracting a number of high quality leading enterprises to settle there.

With the accelerated progress of projects including 1 million spindles of cotton spinning, 1 million tons of polyester spinning, and 500,000 tons of polyester, production capacity of "one million spindles of cotton spinning plus one million tons of polyester" is about to take shape, and an integrated "refining, chemical, spinning" industrial chain is rapidly forming. At the same time, Xinjiang also focuses on textile technology innovation and upgrading, introducing advanced textile equipment and technology to improve the quality and grade of textile products.

A skills competition at Xinjiang Lihua Textile Co., Ltd. in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on December 30, 2025. (Photo provided by Xinjiang Lihua Textile Co., Ltd.)

　　In the end product stage, industrial clusters for knitting, home textiles, and garments have formed in Bachu, Shaya, Yutian and other places. These clusters integrate resources and optimize allocation to achieve specialized division of labor and collaboration, thereby improving production efficiency and market competitiveness. At the same time, some regions and enterprises also focus on brand building, launching a number of brands with Xinjiang characteristics. For example, the public brand "Kashi Premium Cotton" has been established, with group standards for premium cotton issued, achieving "premium cotton at premium prices and high quality with high recognition."

In addition, the national-level cotton and cotton yarn trading center was unveiled in Xinjiang, adding a new "national brand" professional trading platform for cotton and cotton yarn in the region. Through the cotton yarn trading center, enterprises can keep up with market conditions, lower transaction costs, and improve transaction efficiency. The trading center also provides supporting services such as financial services and logistics distribution, promoting the healthy development of the cotton industry.

The textile industry is not only a pillar of economic development in cotton producing areas but also an important industry for enriching local people. During the "14th Five Year Plan" period, the entire textile and garment industry chain in Xinjiang created jobs for over one million people. Textile enterprises in Bachu, Alar and other places have absorbed a large number of local residents for stable employment. Mechanisms such as "enterprise plus cooperative plus farmer" across the Tianshan Mountains continue to improve, cotton farmers' incomes keep rising, and more and more farmers and herders are becoming industrial workers, sharing in the dividends of industrial development.

Drone photo shows a cotton picker in operation in Donggou Village, Dianba Town, Changji City in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Liang Hongtao)

In the vast fields across Xinjiang, this white cotton flower carries the joy of harvest as well as the happy hopes of people from all ethnic groups to increase their incomes and achieve prosperity.

From improved seeds taking root in fertile soil, to technology empowering the fields, to value addition across the entire chain, Xinjiang's cotton is writing a high quality development story for the industry with a more solid foundation, a smarter approach, and a more complete chain.

(Source: Xinjiang Update/Li Jiani)