Xinjiang’s cotton industry is booming! Come and listen to the entrepreneurial stories of two “old cottons”
When the reporter came to Xinjiang again in mid-to-late July to investigate the cotton production situation, he came into contact with several “old cotton” people who have been working on the front line of cotton production all year round. In the past, Xinjiang was a vast desert. Nowadays, the vast fields are blooming with snow-white flowers, which is inseparable from the hard work of “Old Cotton”. Xinjiang cotton with high yield and good quality is grown under their “care” with their hard-working hands. What is particularly important is that many people who have become rich through hard work in Xinjiang’s cotton industry also attach great importance to “passing on and guiding others.” Below, let us learn about the entrepreneurial stories of two of them.
The yearning for a better life made Sister Zhu insist on venturing into Xinjiang when she was 15 years old
“Every year in mid-to-late July, in the vast fields of Xinjiang, you can see green cotton fields full of milky white, light yellow, and pink flowers, marking that cotton growth has reached the peak of budding and boll formation. At this time, the majority of cotton farmers need to be busy in the cotton fields day and night, topping, spraying, watering, fertilizing, and weeding. However, compared with the past, due to the promotion of excellent varieties, the large-scale application of modern agricultural technology, and automation With the increase in the use of machinery, in recent years most of these tasks have been completed by ‘machines’, and the labor intensity of cotton farmers has been greatly reduced.” In Hutubi County, Xinjiang, the reporter met Sister Zhu, a fellow from Henan who farms cotton here. Sister Zhu has her own deep feelings about the rapid changes in Xinjiang’s cotton industry.
Sister Zhu said that there were few natural disasters this year, cotton is growing well, and the yield per unit area is expected to be high. In addition, everyone said that the purchase price of seed cotton can exceed 7.5 yuan/kg. Looking at the neatly growing cotton, she felt happy. , I feel that no matter how hard it is, it’s worth it. It is understood that due to the good policies of the Party, the income from cotton planting in Xinjiang has been relatively stable for many years. Cotton planting has been a traditional project for Sister Zhu’s family to get rich through labor. This year, she and her son contracted an additional 2,400 acres of land, and their expected income is relatively optimistic.
“Speaking of why we came to Xinjiang to grow cotton, there are a lot of ‘sad stories’.” Sister Zhu told reporters that in 1983, she was just a 15-year-old child, and her aunt who was working in Xinjiang came home. Visiting relatives, eating fragrant Xinjiang melon seeds and chewing sweet and sour dried apricot preserves, she would pester her aunt to tell strange legends from various places in Xinjiang every day. Among them, what left the deepest impression on her was that Xinjiang is vast and rich in resources. There is fertile land everywhere that can be cultivated. There is endless food to eat. For half a year, you can sit in bed and eat cantaloupe, honeydew, etc. Eating white steamed buns and watching TV.
According to Sister Zhu, there are many children in the family. When she was 15 years old, she was in middle school and had to go to the fields to help the adults with farm work. Her hometown is in the southeast of Henan Province. At that time, farmers there were particularly fond of growing cotton. Firstly, they could pay more for patriotic grain cotton oil; secondly, before the Spring Festival, they could get some yellow cottonseed oil from the local cotton oil factory and use it. It deep-fried all kinds of noodles, and the aroma is truly unforgettable. However, at that time, farmers had to work hard to grow good cotton. If you reserve the spring land in advance, you will save a lot of energy. However, if you interplant wheat and cotton, you will have to bend over and sow cotton seeds in the wheat field on a sunny day in May. After a day of work, your back pain will be unbearable. He said that his face, neck and two forearms were all covered with red dots, which made him feel very distressed even if they were washed with water.
“Farming work is very hard, but eating three meals a day is very poor.” Sister Zhu said that corn and sweet potatoes were the main rations at that time. There is a jingle, “Sweet potato porridge soup, golden corn flour steamed buns, farmers left no matter where they are.” Can’t live”. At that time, most local farmers had three meals a day: steamed sweet potatoes in the morning, sweet potato flour paste and cornmeal buns at noon, and corn grits soup and distilled sweet potatoes in the evening. Eating cornmeal buns every day gave me toothache. After hearing what her aunt said about how good Xinjiang was, she came up with the idea of going to Xinjiang. However, because she was too young, her parents refused to let her follow her aunt to Xinjiang. However, she was determined to go to Xinjiang to “find a way out” and finally went on a hunger strike to get through her parents.
“The world in Xinjiang is boundless. When I first set foot on this magical land, everything was new.” Sister Zhu arrived in Xinjiang and followed her aunt to plant wheat and corn. At that time, cotton had not yet been widely promoted in Xinjiang. Although the farm work is hard, the diet is much higher than that in my hometown. Not only is I full, but I also eat well. I can eat wheat flour steamed buns every day. The most important thing is that I have a salary. Sending money to parents can help the family solve many life problems.
After living in Xinjiang for several years, Sister Zhu got married. After her life gradually stabilized, she focused on how to grow good cotton in Xinjiang. At that time, the local government of Xinjiang attached great importance to the development of the cotton industry and often arranged for agricultural technicians to conduct cotton planting technology training. However, at that time, people were still relatively conservative and did not want to take the lead in planting cotton. Because Sister Zhu had grown cotton in her hometown and she also liked to try new things, she actively engaged in cotton planting.The institute has also established cotton seed breeding bases in Sanya, Hainan and Yunnan. The long-staple cotton varieties cultivated are unique in related fields, and their quality is comparable to high-quality American cotton varieties. Currently, he and his R&D team are focusing on developing self-defoliating cotton varieties. By then, cotton farmers will plant such varieties and when the cotton is mature and picked, they will not need to use defoliants at all, which can not only save production costs, but also protect the environment. In the future, the sky in Xinjiang will be bluer and the clouds will be whiter, forming a brocade painting together with the snowy peaks of the Tianshan Mountains and the silver flowers in the cotton fields.
During field surveys, whenever reporters see that through the promotion and application of high-tech and advanced applicable technologies, the optimization and upgrading of Xinjiang’s cotton industry has been promoted, cotton and downstream textile industries have become the pillars of local economic development, and agriculture has basically achieved industrialization. With modernization, Uyghur, Han and other cotton farmers have been liberated from the heavy manual labor of the past. While operating large-scale cotton fields and ginning plants, and at the same time opening restaurants and farmyards with ethnic characteristics, you will be deeply touched. In this beautiful place, Xinjiang, China’s cotton industry and Xinjiang’s economy are rising with unstoppable momentum.
At this stage, Xinjiang has become my country’s largest cotton producing area, with output accounting for about 87% of the country’s total. At the same time, Xinjiang cotton has become the raw material of choice for textile companies due to its advantages of high quality, large output, and affordable price. It is an indispensable and important part of the global textile supply chain. More importantly, at present, Xinjiang’s textile and clothing industry is booming, its ability to absorb employment is constantly increasing, and local people of all ethnic groups are working together towards the road of common prosperity.
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