As the world's largest producer and consumer of cotton, China's comprehensive mechanization rate of cotton has been continuously increasing in recent years. However, there are still problems with the mechanization of cotton production in China, such as low level of technological equipment intelligence and insufficient level of refined management. How to make further progress? Experts suggest accelerating the construction of mechanized and intelligent agriculture, achieving full mechanization in all aspects of cotton cultivation, planting, management, and harvesting, and promoting the improvement of cotton industry quality and efficiency.

Domestic packaging and cotton picking machines operating in cotton fields of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps

Domestic cotton picking machines have formed a trend of replacing imports

In recent years, the mechanization of cotton production in China has reached a new level. Preliminary estimates suggest that by 2022, the national cotton machine cultivation rate will be 99.5%, machine sowing rate will be 92.06%, machine harvesting rate will be 76.8%, and the comprehensive mechanization rate of cultivation and harvesting will be 90.46%. Among them, the machine harvesting rate will increase by 8.78% year-on-year.

The world's cotton looks at China, and China's cotton looks at Xinjiang. In 2022, the national cotton planting area was 44.41 million mu, of which 38.96 million mu was planted in Xinjiang, accounting for 87.7% of the total national area. The machine cultivation rate of cotton in Xinjiang is 99.86%, the machine sowing rate is 99.06%, the machine harvesting rate is 81%, and the comprehensive mechanization rate of cotton cultivation and harvesting is 93.96%.

"At present, we have realized the deep integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy according to the local climate and soil conditions in Xinjiang, and established a distinctive cotton production mechanization technology system, which has been applied in more than 80% of Xinjiang, driving the overall level of China's cotton production to further improve." Chen Xuegeng, academician of the CAE Member, said.

This year, the total number of cotton picking machines in China exceeded 8100, with about 1000 new machines added throughout the year. Among them, more than 900 domestic cotton picking machines accounted for 90%.

The cotton picker is the earliest and most mature product developed by Tiejian Heavy Industry Xinjiang Company. At present, we have achieved mass marketization of three row and six row packaging cotton picking machines, which have a considerable share in the cotton harvesting market in Xinjiang and have performed relatively well overall. They have replaced a considerable part of imported equipment, "said Wu Tao, Secretary of the Party Committee, Executive Director, and President of the High end Agricultural Machinery Institute of China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Xinjiang Company.

Currently, domestic cotton picking machines have formed a trend of replacing imports. Agricultural machinery enterprises such as Tiejian Heavy Industry, Boshiran, and Swan Cotton Machine have achieved mass production of cotton picking and packaging machines. However, there is still a significant gap in operational efficiency and reliability compared to advanced foreign products. It is necessary to increase policy support and market cultivation efforts, strengthen scientific and technological innovation research and development, and solve problems such as key component bottlenecks, "said Han Zengde, a researcher at the China Academy of Agricultural Machinery.

Overall, represented by Xinjiang, the pace of mechanization in cotton production in China is accelerating, equipment levels are constantly improving, and domestic cotton picking machine technology is becoming mature, rapidly replacing imported cotton picking machines.

Several prominent issues that urgently need to be addressed

Although China has made significant achievements in mechanization of cotton production, there are still problems such as uneven regional development, insufficient capacity for key technological equipment, and treatment of residual film pollution. Academician Chen Xuegeng pointed out that it is necessary to continuously solve these problems through scientific and technological progress and mechanism innovation.

For a long time, the mechanization of cotton production in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins has been slow and the yield of cotton has been low due to the limited variety of suitable cotton varieties, low standardization, and scattered farming by farmers.

In fact, in the cotton growing areas of Xinjiang, there is a significant gap in the level of machine harvesting between the north and south of Xinjiang, with a difference of 20% in machine harvesting rate. The main reason is that intercropping between forests and cotton and fragmented farmland limit the application of large-scale and efficient agricultural machinery.

Researcher Chen Chuanqiang from Shandong Agricultural Machinery Technology Promotion Station pointed out that there is a problem of land competition with grain in cotton production in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins. Cotton planting fields are small and scattered, with low land flatness and large-scale integration. The planting row spacing is not compatible with cotton picking machine operations, and the management of plant types such as topping and defoliation is not in place. It is urgent to increase land integration efforts, build high standard cotton fields, learn from Xinjiang's 76cm row spacing dense planting mechanization technology and full process control supporting mechanization technology, vigorously promote domestic three row packaging cotton picking mechanization technology, and improve efficiency and benefits.

Another difficulty in cotton production is the insufficient capacity of key technical equipment in plant protection, harvesting, and residual film recycling operations.

Plant protection is the weakest link in agricultural mechanization of cotton production. Cotton planting density is high, and the existing pesticide application machinery and methods have poor defoliation effect. Mechanical harvesting of cotton has a high impurity rate, which affects the quality of machine harvested cotton. Meanwhile, although the process of domestication of cotton picking machines has been accelerating in recent years, there is still a gap in overall technical level and core technology compared to similar foreign models.

Xue Xinyu, a researcher at the Nanjing Agricultural Mechanization Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, pointed out that the cotton planting density in Xinjiang is more than twice that of countries such as the United States. Directly applying foreign technology to cotton planting in Xinjiang faces many problems. Researching precise pesticide application techniques and equipment that are suitable for the high-yield and dense planting mode in Xinjiang, screening and optimizing the combination of high-efficiency regulators and adjuvants, and promoting the standardization of cotton mechanized pesticide application technology are important ways to solve these problems.

The technology of plastic film covering promotes a significant increase in cotton yield, but long-term use of plastic film causes pollution to cotton fields. In recent years, Academician Chen Xuegeng has been dedicated to researching technologies for treating residual film pollution in farmland. He said, "Machinery pushed down the plastic film, and now pollution has formed. We have a responsibility to create new machinery to retrieve the agricultural film and not leave the pollution to future generations

In recent years, there has been some progress in the mechanized recycling technology of agricultural residue film, but there are problems such as low recycling rate, high impurity content, and low operational efficiency. China is carrying out high-strength plastic film testing and demonstration, as well as research and development of residual film recycling technology and equipment, to promote the green and sustainable development of cotton.

In response to these issues, Xu Zhenxing, Deputy Director of the Agricultural Mechanization General Station of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, pointed out that we should vigorously promote the successful experience of full mechanization of cotton in Xinjiang, strengthen cooperation between industry, academia, and research, continuously strengthen the support of cotton production technology and equipment in China, strive to improve the cotton production capacity in inland areas, accelerate the integration of research and development, manufacturing, promotion, and application of full mechanization of cotton, provide strong mechanization support for stable cotton production and supply, and strive to achieve high-quality development of China's cotton industry.

Developing towards precision and intelligence

High power tractors paired with intelligent tillage equipment will break through key technologies such as high speed, low resistance, and low energy consumption; Accurate and intelligent sowing equipment, real-time monitoring and dynamic adjustment technology for sowing quality will rapidly develop, and sowing accuracy will be further improved... Like planting other crops, in the future, China's cotton mechanization will develop towards precision and intelligence.

Li Zhaomin, Vice President of Shihezi University, pointed out that we should continue to give full play to Xinjiang's position and role as the main cotton producing area in China and the main battlefield for scientific research, promotion and application of cotton production technology and equipment. In accordance with the research and development goals of "improving the quality and efficiency of cotton production in Xinjiang" and the direction of industrial development, we should continuously make new breakthroughs in digital agriculture and precision management of cotton production, water-saving irrigation technology and equipment, and fully mechanized agricultural machinery and equipment. We should take the lead in modernizing cotton production in Xinjiang and strive to ensure the safety and stability of China's cotton industry chain and supply chain.

Professor Wu Caicong from China Agricultural University pointed out that the management and scheduling of socialized agricultural machinery services in China are scattered in various provinces, large agricultural machinery enterprises, and individual technology companies, each fighting on its own, incompatible, redundant, and inefficient. It is urgent to establish a unified supervision and scheduling network for socialized agricultural machinery services covering the whole country. By using Beidou remote monitoring technology, a management and scheduling system for growers, agricultural machinery cooperatives, and agricultural machinery management departments can be established to monitor, manage, and schedule the entire process of cotton cultivation and harvesting, forming Xinjiang cotton production and management big data, and improving the quality, efficiency, and benefits of cotton planting.

The experts also proposed to further carry out the research and development of key technologies and components around the localization goal of large self-propelled cotton pickers and self-propelled spray.

One is the development of the gearbox for cotton picking machines, which can reach the technical level of foreign products, improve applicability and durability;

The second is the development of hydraulic components, including pumps, motors and various reversing (diverting) valves used in large self-propelled cotton pickers and self-propelled spray to improve technical performance;

The third is to improve and optimize the performance of the engine, enhance power performance, and carry out lightweight structural design; The fourth is the technological improvement of the whole machine's intelligence and automation system.