Guazhou Cotton

Guazhou Cotton

　　Guazhou has a long history of cotton cultivation. As early as the prosperous Tang Dynasty, it introduced upland cotton from India for planting. By the 1970s, large-scale cotton farming began, and in the 1990s, to enhance agricultural efficiency and increase farmers' income, a series of pro-agriculture policies and measures were implemented. The region vigorously adjusted its industrial structure and explored various new avenues for increasing farmers' prosperity. It continuously expanded the scale of the cotton industry, with both planting area and yield per unit area increasing year by year and stabilizing over time. Currently, the cotton planting area remains stable at over 200,000 mu, accounting for more than 65% of the county’s total sown area. The average yield of lint cotton reaches 116 kilograms per mu, and cotton cultivation contributes about 80% of farmers’ per capita net income. Cotton farming has become the leading industry in Guazhou.

　　 Guazhou cotton is known for its high yield and premium quality. The average moisture content is 6.5%, and impurities are 1.6%, both below national standards. The average fiber length is 29.6 mm, with a strength of 21.3 gf/tex, an elongation rate of 7.7%, a micronaire value of 4.3, and a maturity coefficient of 1.75. The lint cotton is white in color and of excellent quality, highly favored by textile enterprises. Products such as lint cotton, cottonseed oil, and cotton wadding produced here are popular both within and outside the province. Among them, the “Silk Road” brand cotton wadding has won the Provincial Quality Product Award.