Smart tech turns Xinjiang's "Super Cotton Field" into a model for unmanned farming

Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Dialy (Reporter Cao Hua) news: As a demonstration model for smart agriculture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the unmanned planting model of the 3,000-mu (20 hectares) "Super Cotton Field" in Yuli County, Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, has been promoted across Xinjiang, covering more than two million mu (about 133,333.33 hectares), injecting technological strength into the transformation and upgrading of Xinjiang's cotton industry.

Photo shows a drone autonomously returns to its nest after completing pesticide spraying. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/Cao Hua)

On September 3, 2026, looking across the cotton field, contiguous cotton plants were heavy with bolls, and the cotton bolls were bursting open, presenting a scene of bumper harvest. Few workers were visible in the field. Agricultural drones flew back and forth along preset routes to complete crop protection operations; soil sensors buried at the field edges continuously collected soil moisture, temperature, and other field data and transmitted them back to the back-end system in real time.

The integrated smart system combines multiple types of hardware, including crop-protection drones, smart irrigation systems, and field-scouting equipment, bringing four core farming tasks — irrigation, fertilization, pesticide application, and field scouting — under digital management. After operations are completed, the drones can autonomously return to their nests to recharge, refill pesticide, and upload data. Management personnel only need to operate a mobile phone terminal; even when off-site, they can coordinate cotton field production.

Ai Haipeng, manager of the "Super Cotton Field" in Yuli County for Guangzhou XAG Co., Ltd., said, "The purpose of building a smart cotton field is to free up traditional field labor and make farming less laborious. A 3,000-mu (20 hectares) cotton field used to require 20 caretakers; now, relying on smart systems, only one person is needed to coordinate management. Production efficiency has increased 20-fold, and labor costs have fallen by more than 70 percent."

The project began pilot exploration in Yuli County in 2021 and was rolled out to growers in 2024. The system consists of five functional modules, and growers can select the modules they need according to their planting scale. The larger the planting area, the lower the amortized equipment cost per mu. After multiple rounds of technological optimization, the average per-mu investment in smart management has dropped sharply. For drone field scouting alone, the average cost is only 1.7 yuan per mu per year (about 3.54 U.S. dollars per hectare per year), winning broad recognition among cotton farmers.

Yu Qinghua, deputy county magistrate of Yuli County, said that Yuli County is a national-level high-quality commercial cotton production base, with its cotton planting area long stable at one million mu (about 66,666.67 hectares). In recent years, Yuli County has vigorously supported agricultural science and technology innovation. The county's mechanical cotton harvesting rate has reached 100 percent, and the use of drone crop protection, smart irrigation, and other applications has continued to expand, steadily reducing planting costs and helping farmers boost household incomes.

According to reports, unmanned operations account for 75 percent of all field work in Yuli County's "Super Cotton Field." Among those who have adopted the model, young and middle-aged growers make up more than 60 percent. The efficiency gains brought by technology-driven farming have attracted many young people to return home and work in agriculture.

"Smart agriculture in Xinjiang is still in its early stage of development, with overall coverage less than 10 percent," Ai Haipeng said. The replicable and scalable practical experience of the "Super Cotton Field" will help explore a viable path for the development of modern agriculture in Xinjiang, boasting broad market prospects.

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