Machinery cotton pickers replace manual labor in China's Xinjiang

A cotton picker is seen in a cotton field in Gezkum Town of Xayar County, Aksu Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Ma Kai)

Official data suggest that machinery cotton pickers have replaced manual labor to complete 80 percent of cotton picking in harvest season in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the country's largest cotton-producing region.

According to the regional agricultural mechanization development center, more than 6,300 machinery cotton pickers are in service in Xinjiang. In 2021, the mechanization rate of cotton picking in the region exceeded 80 percent.

This year, Xinjiang's cotton growing area is about 37 million mu (about 2.46 million hectares). With the comprehensive use of modern agricultural machinery such as cotton pickers, the region's cotton farming has bid farewell to the intensive use of manual labor, said the center.

Cotton output in Xinjiang topped 5.1 million tonnes in 2021, accounting for about 90 percent of the country's total and maintaining its first rank in China for over two decades.