In recent years, Huahai Town, Yumen City has relied on its resource advantages to build high-standard farmland. , adjusting the industrial planting structure, cotton planting in Huahai Town has gone from the decline and demise of an industry to its re-emergence. The former “sweat agriculture” is transforming into “smart agriculture”.
The once declining cotton industry
As early as the 1960s and 1970s, cotton began to be grown in Huahai Town, Yumen. The rich light and heat resources, abundant sunshine, sparse precipitation, large temperature difference between day and night and the melting water of ice and snow in the Qilian Mountains provide unique conditions for the development of the cotton industry. In 2013, with Huahai Town as the center, the cotton planting area in Yumen City reached 108,200 acres. Huahai cotton with good quality and high yield has been unanimously recognized by the market and consumers, and the cotton industry has become one of the main income-increasing industries for the people.
With the rapid advancement of urbanization and changes in the rural labor force structure , the cost of cotton production has risen sharply, and the efficiency of cotton planting has continued to decrease. In 2016, the cotton industry in Huahai Town was extinct. All nine cotton processing plants in the area ceased production, and a large number of factories and machines were idle, resulting in a waste of resources.
Innovative development allows the cotton industry to re-emerge
Now is the time for cotton to be sealed with soil and seedlings planted. On May 11, the reporter walked into the high-standard farmland in Xiquan Village, Huahai Town. Several soil sealing machines were working, and the scene was busy. Coming out of the “trough” in 2016, the cotton industry in Yumen Huahai Town is gradually re-emerging.
In 2023, Yumen Huahai Town will further expand the scale of cotton planting , the planting area reached 21,000 acres, and 8 million yuan was invested to build a 2,000-acre cotton high-yield demonstration area. Here, water-saving drip irrigation technology can save 40% of water per mu; mechanical picking technology not only reduces production costs, but also ensures cotton yields. The yield of machine-picked cotton per mu can reach more than 400 kilograms of seed cotton and more than 150 kilograms of lint. The average net income per mu can reach 1,708 yuan.
</p
