URUMQI, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A glimpse of the vast cotton fields of Yuli County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region revealed a quadcopter gliding in the air while smart irrigation systems misted the soil below it. With no field workers in sight, a single operator orchestrated the entire harvest preparation effort remotely via a smartphone.
This high-tech scene is the daily routine at a 3,000-mu (about 200 hectares) "super cotton field" where just two young operators manage the entire plot using a digital smart agriculture system. Launched in 2021 by an agricultural robotics company based in Guangzhou in south China, this pilot project aimed to test the viability of a replicable, fully automated farming model.
Equipped with autonomous driving systems, agricultural drones and smart irrigation, this farm has achieved a 75-percent automation rate across the entire planting and harvesting cycle.
"Smart tech has significantly boosted efficiency," said Ai Haipeng, the project operator. While manually inspecting the entire field during the sprouting stage takes three days, autonomous drones can complete the task in half a day, quickly identifying missing seedlings, water leaks, weeds and pests.
Automation has also slashed costs. Compared to traditional farms, this cotton field has reduced expenses for water, fertilizer, pesticides and labor by 254 yuan (roughly 37 U.S. dollars) per mu, a 22-percent decrease, while boosting yields by 8 percent.
The Yuli model has since been replicated across more than 2 million mu (around 133,000 hectares) in Xinjiang, serving as a microcosm of the region's broader agricultural transformation.
Powered by modern technology, Xinjiang's cotton production surged 8.4 percent to 6.16 million tonnes in 2025, accounting for 92.8 percent of China's total. Grain output reached 24.32 million tonnes in this region last year, marking its eighth consecutive year of growth, with per-hectare yields ranking first nationally for two straight years. These milestones have further cemented Xinjiang's status as a key national agricultural hub.
Xinjiang's push is part of a broader national drive to digitize and modernize China's agriculture sector. In line with the latest national smart agriculture roadmap, the country is accelerating the rollout of demonstration zones, big data platforms and intelligent equipment. By 2025, technology had contributed to over 64 percent of agricultural output, with comprehensive mechanization in crop farming hitting 76.7 percent, while the nation's agricultural drone fleet surpassed 300,000 units.
Regional officials are doubling down on this strategy. Xie Yingzhou, head of Xinjiang's agriculture department, said the region will further step up agricultural technology and equipment support over the next five years, developing next-generation agricultural productivity tailored to local conditions while expanding applications in artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy and smart farming to make technology the key driver of agricultural quality and efficiency. ■
