Will China’s wilting cotton output in Xinjiang get a boost from Western satellite imagery?

Researchers say a satellite imagery survey will help improve policymaking and crop management in the far west region

China has had to redirect Xinjiang products to new markets since the US imposed an import ban

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The cotton harvest season starts in October in Xinjiang, the largest cotton-growing area in China. Cotton output from the region was expected to drop by 11 per cent this year compared to 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 11:00am, 5 Nov 2023

Researchers in China say that a detailed new mapping project of cotton production in Xinjiang could help improve crop management and farming output.

Xinjiang is the largest cotton producing region in China and using satellite images, the group of scientists have mapped and made public cotton growing distribution in the region from 2018 to 2021.

The images were obtained from the European Space Agency imaging missions Sentinel-1 and 2. Vegetation and soil are among the monitoring objectives of Sentinel-2.

“This is the first cotton mapping for the entire Xinjiang at 10-metre (32.8 feet) resolution, which can provide a basis for high-precision cotton monitoring and policymaking in China,” the team wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Data last month.

“The accurate and detailed mapping of cotton in Xinjiang is vital for cotton management, disease prevention and control, and yield forecast,” the team said, adding that the data set is available on the open repository Zenodo.

The researchers are from: the National Engineering Research Centre for Satellite Remote Sensing Applications under the Chinese Academy of Sciences; the Oasis Eco-Agriculture Key Laboratory, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, at Shihezi University in northern Xinjiang; and Canada’s University of Toronto.

China produces more than 20 per cent of the world’s cotton, mostly from the far western region of Xinjiang. Last year, the autonomous region produced 90 per cent of the country’s cotton, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Cotton output from the region is expected to drop by 11 per cent to 5.57 million tonnes this year compared to 2022, a year after the United States imposed a Xinjiang import ban, and as China pushes to improve quality and food and crop security. Climate shocks earlier this year were also likely to contribute to decreased yields.