“Silver Palace” Ginned Cotton

“Silver Palace” Ginned Cotton

　　“Silver Palace” Ginned Cotton

　　Nangong is a national high-quality cotton base, one of the top 100 cotton-producing counties/cities in China, and is hailed as the “Hometown of Cotton” in Hebei Province. In February 2000, the city registered the “Silver Palace” brand trademark with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. In the same year, the “Silver Palace” brand ginned cotton was rated as one of the nation’s “Top Ten Famous Brands” by the National Branded Cotton Evaluation Committee. In 2001, at the China International Agricultural Expo, the “Silver Palace” brand ginned cotton was recognized as a famous-brand product. From 2000 to 2002, it was consecutively awarded as a quality product at the China (Langfang) Northern Agricultural and Sideline Products Trade Fair. In 2002, Nangong City was officially named the “Hometown of Cotton in Hebei Province” by the Hebei Provincial Department of Agriculture.

　　The region has a long history of cotton cultivation, with perennial planting areas reaching 25,000 hectares. Renowned for high yield and premium quality, it enjoys the reputation of “Golden Nangong” and has been listed as a national high-quality cotton base and among the top 100 cotton-producing counties/cities. The “Silver Palace” brand ginned cotton has been rated as one of the nation’s top ten famous cotton brands. The “Silver Palace” ginned cotton produced here features long and fine fibers, low sugar content, and primarily consists of Grade II and III fibers. The fiber length ranges from 29–31mm, micronaire value from 3.7–4.9, and strength from 24.4–24.6. Thanks to its superior quality, it is widely welcomed by domestic and international buyers, resulting in high demand that often outstrips supply.

　　Nangong has over 300 years of history in cotton cultivation. Cotton is the main cash crop and an important economic pillar of the city’s agriculture, consistently occupying 30%–50% of the total cultivated land. It is thus known as the “Cotton Sea of Southern Hebei” and “Golden Nangong.” In the 1950s, Gong Yubo, a national model worker from Nangong, invented the cotton pest control technique called “Willow Twig Bait Moth Luring and Killing,” which was promoted nationwide and included in agricultural textbooks. In the 1970s, the new cotton variety 6871 (Hebei Cotton No. 1), jointly developed by the Xingtai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Nangong, was introduced across the Huang-Huai-Hai cotton-growing region and won the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 1986, the research project on comprehensive yield-increasing techniques for low-yield cotton fields in dry and saline-alkali lands won the First Prize of the Hebei Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. Techniques such as plastic-film mulched cotton in the 1990s and the more recent drip irrigation under mulch introduced in recent years have both provided technological assurance for increasing cotton yield and reducing production costs. The habits and experience accumulated by generations of Nangong people in cotton farming have evolved into a unique “cotton culture.”