Characteristic Agriculture

    Thanks to its unique climate and soil and water conditions, Xinjiang is abundant in animal resources, such as quality merino, with leather and mutton as good as that in Australia.    
    Xinjiang has unique advantages in fishery development. It has a water surface of about 833, 000 acres, characterized by less pollution and pure water, good for fishery. It has unique fish species, bulhead and bastard sturgeon. So far, it has built multiple characteristic aquaculture centers including Ulungur Lake, Bosten Lake and Sayram Lake. Although it has an arid climate, it suits growth of fish and other aquatic organisms. It has a fish breeding water area of 330, 000 hectares including 266, 700 hectares already applied. Ulungur Lake and Bosten Lake rank in the forefront of national important fishing lakes. It hosts 11 rivers with a total flow of 1 billion cubic meters, suitable for fishery. The Tarim River, which is China’s longest inland river, and the Irtysh River, abound in fish. In recent years, many new ponds have been built suburbs, towns and township. Swags and bogs spread in various parts. They are used to develop fishery. There are over 50 kinds of local fish in Xinjiang, including turgeon, giant red fish, big white fish, golden carp, ide and Abramis brama. The fish is characterized by high adaptability and fresh meat, and natural propagation. Turgeon, bass, Ious fish in Ulungur Lake and the Irtysh River, pipefish, cabezon in Bosten Lake and carp and weever in the Ili River are very popular. Since the 1950s, it has constantly introduced new breeds from the inland, such as chub, grass carp, black carp, bighead, salmon, red carp and shrimps. At the end of 1998, it had aquatic products of 54, 900 tons, ranking first in the northwest. In the next few years, Xinjiang will be developed into China’s major characteristic aquatic center through foreign investment promotion and capital attraction.
    Possessing 23% of China’s wild edible fungi, Xinjiang has rich wild edible fungi. From June to September, wild edible fungi spread along both sides of Tianshan Mountains. There are many species of mushrooms, such as pleurotus nebrodensis in Bayanbulak Grassland, red mushroom and coprinus atramentarius in valleys and woods, silver mushroom, Cortinarius latus Fr and red feet porcini in Altay Grassland and Kanas Lake, yanqi black mushroom at Bosten Lake, Ganjia Lake and Barkol Lake, agaric and mushroom in the populous euphratica forests at the Yarkant River and Pleurotus nebrodensis at Awei Beach, semi-desert and desert. The colorful wild edible fungi protect the environment of forests and grasslands, and improve production conditions of local people. It has made certain achievements in development, and further development space.
    Xinjiang has a long history of planting cash crops and a variety of species, such as cotton, oil plants, beet, fiber crops, tobacco, crude medicines, and silkworms. Xinjiang cotton is famous for its good quality. In 1998, it had a cotton output of 1.375 million tons. With a cotton planting area accounting for one third of China’s total, Xinjiang is an important cotton planting area. The Manas River Basin and Turpan Basin in North Xinjiang and vast areas in South Xinjiang are major cotton producing areas. Its long-staple cotton (or sea island cotton) is characterized by high economic value and harsh demanding for the environment and tillage measure, ranking first in China in terms of planting area, output and quality. It is one of the major beet producing areas in the North, with favorable conditions for planting beet and high single yield and sugar content. It began to plant hops in the 1960s, ranking first in China in terms of planting area, total and single output, and quality. Xinjiang has been the main source of hops at the domestic and international markets. It has an annual silkworm production of 3800 tons, 57 times over that in 1949.
    Xinjiang has a vegetable planting area of over 20, 000 hectares, an output of 2.9 million tons, winter fresh vegetable self-supply rate of 70% in major cities. Some vegetables are quite famous, such as white garlic in Qitai County, Dabancheng, Urumqi County, selling well in Hong Kong every year. Fine quality potatoes in Qitai, Mori, Jimsar, Urumqi counties, sell well in neighboring provinces/regions. Tomato paste in Korla and Changji sell well at home and abroad, with demand exceeding supply. By 1998, it had had more than 50 products of over 40 enterprises with pollution-free and nuisance-free green food marks.
    Xinjiang has been called the center of melons and fruits. As the famous Hami  melons are rich in Xinjiang, it has informed a Hami  melon production system for different shapes and colors. The pear in Korla is known around the world for its high sweaty taste, delicate flesh and fragrance. The apple, pomegranate, fig and nut in Xinjiang also have good qualities. Due to the climate good for the fruit sugar’s manufacture and accumulation, local melons and fruits are delicious. According to the survey, Xinjiang is a region that its acreage for melon production, its melon variety and quality all rank at the forefront in China, producing millions of variety fruits annually. Its common fruits are grapes, melons (Hami  melons), water melons, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, cherries, figs, walnuts and almonds and its fine varieties of fruit have numbered many hundreds. Among them, Turpan seedless grapes, Shanshan melons, Korla pears, Kuqa apricots, Atux figs, Kashigar cherries, walnuts and light skin peaches, Yecheng pomegranates, Qipan pears, Hotan peaches and Ili apples all enjoy a great fame nationwide. Xinjiang raisins, Hami melons and pears are best sellers in the international market. Located in an intermountain basin in the middle of Xinjiang, Turpan is suitable for grapes growing as it is very hot, with a surface temperature of above 70℃ in summer. Therefore, it focuses on grape industrialization to energetically develop characteristic agriculture. There is a grape valley of 8 kilometers by 0.5 kilometers from north to south, 15 kilometers away from Turpan City. Once there, you will see thick grape vines all over the valley. When entering into the wine yard, clusters of grape will come in hand.  There are over 400-hectare cultivated land in the wine yard, including over 220 hectares of grape planting areas. It is known that its grape planting areas account for 42% of the total cultivated areas, including of 14,000-hectare harvesting areas, by implementing the development strategy of 0.07-hectare grapes per capita. Xinjiang has cultivated a group of famous grape processing enterprises and achieved a group of brand products, such as Loulan wine, based on grape plantation in Turpan.
    As one of China’s 5 major pastoral areas, Xinjiang has a long history of stocking breeding. It has 57.333 million hectares of green land, ranking second in China. Different domestic animals live all round the 48-million-hectare pastures south and north of Tianshan Mountains, most of which are sheep and cattle, horses, goats, donkeys, camels, mules and yaks. Xinjiang Fine-wool Sheep, Altay fat-tailed sheep, Xinjiang White Pig and Ili dual-purpose cattle are nationally well-known domestic animal species. In recent years, Xinjiang’s livestock production has been developed rapidly with continual improvement, breeding and the introduction of new quality of livestock species and some indexes have taken lead in China. In addition to meeting the local demands, large quantities of cattle, sheep, horses and donkeys are transported to the inland every year. Large livestock products, such as fur, hair, velour, casing, cream, butter and milk powder, are supplied by well-developed animal husbandry. Many inexpensive livestock products and their processed products sell well at home and abroad.
　　As the main natural forest area in the arid West, Xinjiang’s forest area accounts for nearly one third of the northwestern forest region and is distributed in mountains and plains. Tianshan Mountains and Altay Mountains are covered with lush virgin forests, most of which are good building materials such as Siberian larch, Schrenk spruce, needle-leaved trees. The timber reserves of coniferous forests in the mountains account for over 97% of Xinjiang’s total. The broad-leaved forests in the plains are distributed on both sides of the Tarim River and the Manas River. In the Tarim River Basin, Euphrates Poplars forests and populous pruinosa forests, host word-famous trees, serving as commercial forests wind breaks in desert. There are over 60 kinds of forest plating trees including white poplar, willow, elm, white wax, maple, locust, white pine, Russia aliva, mulberry and other fruit trees, most of which are local seeds of trees and some are introduced from inland China and abroad. With the development of afforestation in urban and rural areas, ancient towns and wastelands have taken on a new look with rows of protective forests, economic forests and fuel wood forest. It has completed the first and second phases of northwest-north-northeast shelterbelt development, which is hailed as the green great wall. Xinjiang has a green coverage rate of 24%. 9 cities in Xinjiang have met the prescribed standards for city greenbelt regulated by the Ministry of Construction.