Cotton farming in Xinjiang has long moved beyond reliance on manual labor — with mechanization rate reaching 97 per cent across plowing, sowing and harvesting. And it keeps getting smarter: drones, and AI-powered smart machines are powering the next chapter.
URUMQI (Nov 2): In a 66.7-hectare demonstration cotton field in Changji, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the average seed cotton yield reached a record high of 9 tonnes per hectare this year.
This would be a strong harvest in any year. It is even more striking as Xinjiang just experienced the hottest summer since 1961.
In northern Xinjiang, cotton fields endured 26 days of sustained high temperatures during the critical flowering and boll-setting stage, conditions that would normally cause a plunge in output.
