Industrial Cluster: Jiuquan'S Road To High-Quality Development Of Cotton Industry

Ten thousand mu of cotton fields are picturesque. Cotton pickers have become the "main force" of cotton production areas. The harvested cotton "returns to the warehouse". The 304000 mu of cotton fields in Jiuquan City have created a harvest scene.

"In the past, people used to pick up cotton, but picking up cotton every year was the most worrying time. There was no money to spend when there was less land, and there was no way to hire people when there was more land to pick up. After a year of hard work, there was not much left. Now, it is better to finally realize a large area of machine harvested cotton. It is better to mechanize it! It saves labor and time," said Ma Jun, a cotton grower at Xiaogu Farm in Dunhuang City. The cotton picker can harvest 10 mu of cotton in one hour. The cotton field that was picked by 40 people in one day can be picked in one hour now. The mechanized production of cotton has really liberated our farmers, and expressed a strong desire to continue to expand the scale of cotton harvesting by planting machines under the guidance of cotton experts from Jiuquan Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

According to Zhan Youjun, a researcher of Jiuquan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, with the introduction of various national support policies and the development of science and technology, Jiuquan cotton industry has ushered in a great development opportunity. According to our survey, cotton harvesting is the last link of cotton production, and labor costs account for the highest proportion, accounting for 40~45% of the total production costs, which greatly squeezed the profit space of cotton farmers to increase their income. The promotion and application of machine picking cotton has played a key role in the recovery of Jiuquan cotton industry. Machine picking has greatly solved the bottleneck problem that restricts the development of Jiuquan cotton industry due to large labor consumption and high production costs. Traditional manual picking will soon become a thing of the past.

In recent years, with the "settling down" of machine picking cotton, Jiuquan's cotton industry has shown a recovery growth trend, but the bottleneck problems that restrict the development of machine picking cotton are also emerging. The scientific research team of the Cotton Institute of Jiuquan Academy of Agricultural Sciences insisted on problem orientation, strengthened organization and management, strengthened policy guidance, applied information technology, implemented the whole process guidance and service of cotton in the demonstration bases of machine picking cotton in Suzhou Town, Fine Variety Breeding Farm, Donghu Farm and Xiaogu Farm of Dunhuang City, and applied simple and efficient mode, machine direct seeding High efficiency and cost saving cotton planting technologies such as water fertilizer integration, chemical regulation, defoliation and ripening, mechanized harvesting, etc. have realized the combination of good varieties and good methods, effectively improved cotton yield, realized the promotion of agriculture and income, and provided technical support for the transformation, upgrading and healthy development of Jiuquan cotton industry. (Zhang Xuan and Sun Jianchuan)

(Source: Jiuquan Academy of Agricultural Sciences)