Xinjiang sees record grain, cotton outputs

The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has achieved record-breaking outputs in both cotton and grain in 2025, driven by large-scale mechanization, high-quality farmland, and improved crop varieties.

Official data shows cotton production reached 6.17 million metric tons, exceeding 6 million tons for the first time and accounting for 92.8 percent of the national total. Grain yields increased to 8,291.9 kilograms per hectare, keeping Xinjiang at the top nationwide for the second consecutive year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's total cotton-sown area reached 3 million hectares in 2025, with Xinjiang alone covering 2.59 million hectares, up 5.9 percent from 2024.

NBS official Wei Fenghua attributed the growth to large-scale mechanized farming and sustained high cotton prices, which have motivated farmers to continue expanding cultivation.

Xinjiang's cotton yield reached 2,379 kg per hectare, or 150 kg above the national average, benefiting from favorable temperatures, abundant sunlight, refined field management, and improved seed varieties, he added.

Mechanization has been a key factor in boosting efficiency. In Awat county, Aksu prefecture, the Yuhao Farmers' Cooperative has mechanized over 80 percent of cotton operations, including sowing, pesticide application, and harvesting. The cooperative adopted high-yield, disease-resistant cotton varieties and leveled the land to accommodate large-scale equipment, according to Wang Hongwei, who runs the cooperative.

The cooperative's self-propelled cotton picker, now mostly domestically produced, can harvest 10 hectares a day, the equivalent of about 100 people working manually. Local statistics show domestic machinery accounted for more than 80 percent of the total cotton pickers used in Aksu's Awat and Shaya counties.

Agricultural machinery operators have increasingly embraced domestically produced equipment. After five years using imported models, operator Hao Jiangshan switched to local pickers, benefiting from faster maintenance, warranty support, and training tailored to local conditions.

Yue Xingchun, manager of Shaya Boshiran Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Co's after-sales department, said domestic equipment now matches imported models in performance and is designed for typical domestic cotton field sizes and operational needs.

Grain production in Xinjiang also posted strong growth in 2025, with total output reaching 24.32 million tons, an increase of 1.02 million tons from 2024.

Over the past five years, Xinjiang's annual grain output has grown by 8.49 million tons, contributing 18.7 percent of the country's total growth over the same period, marking the largest regional increase nationwide, according to Xinjiang's department of agriculture and rural affairs.

The department highlighted that per-unit yield improvement of grain and cotton stems from a comprehensive initiative leveraging Xinjiang's nearly 4 million hectares of high-standard farmland with technologies such as rational dense planting and precision water and fertilizer regulation.

Xinjiang plans to further enhance agricultural productivity by concentrating cotton cultivation in zones suitable for mechanized harvesting, expanding local processing of wheat, corn, and cotton, and continuing to optimize yields through technology and improved farming practices, according to the department.

Contact the writers at fangaiqing@chinadaily.com.cn