Farmers use a machine to harvest cotton in Tiemenguan, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on October 7, 2023. As Xinjiang is entering the harvest season for new cotton, the region is deploying more than 6,900 cotton-picking machines of various types to ensure that mechanized cotton harvesting is completed as scheduled. Photo: VCG

 
A pilot farm under the Cotton China Sustainable Development Program (CCSD) in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is expected to produce 170,000 tons of sustainable cotton this year.

The program, which was initiated in 2021 to produce and promote sustainable cotton, has produced 260,000 tons of sustainable cotton in the past two years, and a total of 1.2 million mu of Xinjiang cotton fields have been used in the CCSD in 2023, GT learned. 

Close attention is paid to agricultural chemicals like pesticide, fertilizer and mulch, as well as water usage, soil health, biodiversity conservation and greenhouse gas reduction. In the future, the cotton will be certified for its sustainable  

The sustainable standards, including the CCSD cotton production and supply chain, are suitable for China's national conditions and aligned with relevant international standards, Wang Jianhong, a vice chairman and secretary general of the China Cotton Association (CCA), said at a meeting held on Sunday. 

The CCSD was jointly launched by the CCA and four textile industry associations in June 2021. The program is intended to build the first system of sustainable cotton standards, identification and evaluation.  

Six Chinese cotton manufacturers were awarded the first batch of sustainable production certificates by the CSSD in March this year.