STORY: Dedicated farmers power Xinjiang's cotton harvest
SHOOTING TIME: Recent footage
DATELINE: May 15, 2024
LENGTH: 0:01:38
LOCATION: SHAWAN, China
CATEGORY: AGRICULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the farmland
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): HE HONGTAO, Director of Shawan Shuangquan Agricultural Machinery Specialized Cooperative
3. various of the farmland
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): HAN BO, Chairman of Xinjiang Hongji Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
5. various of the farmland

STORYLINE:

The cotton fields in Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, are vast. Local farmers have turned to cooperative mode to increase farming yield.

He Hongtao, director of Shawan Shuangquan Agricultural Machinery Specialized Cooperative, says the transition towards scale farming brings benefits to local people.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): HE HONGTAO, Director of Shawan Shuangquan Agricultural Machinery Specialized Cooperative
"All profits from our land are distributed according to targeted income. The cooperative provides a guaranteed minimum dividend to everyone.
Some farmers turned to other businesses, such as transportation, for higher income.
Most farmers don't want to see their lands wasted. This has driven us to think about how to share the land's profits with farmers. The cooperative meets the farmers' demand." 

The cooperative has made individual farming into collective farming, enabling standardized management and large-scale production.

Large agricultural machinery like planters and cotton pickers were introduced.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): HAN BO, Chairman of Xinjiang Hongji Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
"At the beginning, the seeding machines were only able to sow seeds, later seeding and filming could be done at the same time. Now, the laying of drip irrigation tapes is added. All these can be done with favorable prices. It's affordable and helpful. Now, the yield of each mu (0.067 hectares) has been increased to over 400 kg, even about 500 kg, from no more than 200 kg."

Shawan City now has over 540 cotton-picking machines, with a mechanization rate exceeding 97 percent. In 2023, nearly 7,000 cotton pickers were in use across Xinjiang, with a mechanization rate exceeding 85 percent.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Shawan, China.
(XHTV)