Lu Gaolin bites cotton seeds to check the conditions of cotton to be harvested after rain in Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 23, 2021. Lu Gaolin, a cotton farmer, is 56 years old and lives in Shawan City of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The cotton harvest season in Xinjiang, China's largest cotton-producing region, will last until mid-November this year, with the output expected to reach 5.2 million tonnes. The region has contributed nearly 90 percent of China's cotton production capacity and about 20 percent of the global cotton production. In four days, Lu Gaolin completely finished harvesting his 64-hectare cotton field thanks to a gigantic green machine. The cotton picker is way more efficient than manual labor. "It used to take seven or eight workers over two months to complete the job of manually picking cotton," he said. Furthermore, new methods such as machine seeding and drone spraying have greatly improved farm work efficiency and quality. After this picking season, Lu and his son Dewen have bigger plans for the coming year. They intend to purchase a new cotton picker worth about 940,000 U.S. dollars together with other cotton farmers in order to increase their income. [Photo by Hu Huhu/Xinhua]

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