The Xinjiang, China, government has invested $23.5 million in a drip irrigation system powered by solar panels.
The arid Xinjiang region occupies one-sixth of China’s land, sharing a 3,480-mile international border with seven countries, including Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and India. The government says the region lacks surface water but has some supplies of groundwater.
Xinjiang has extensive wind and solar resources but lacks sufficient water supply, especially for its cotton crops.
The region produces 30 percent of the country’s cotton, and just 30 percent of those crops are grown with drip irrigation, the report by the Esquel Group for the Asia Business Council said. Further roll-out of drip irrigation can help China’s water shortage and improve farmers’ livelihood, the report said.
In the Xinjiang region, replacing flood irrigation with drip irrigation on just 5,000 acres of cotton farmland has the potential to reduce water use by 22 percent, save 1.6 million gallons a year, increase cultivable area by 5 percent by eliminating ditches, reduce chemical fertilizers by 10 percent, and improve yield by 30 percent, according to the report.
The region is rich in natural gas, coal, solar and wind resources. Installed wind capacity in Xinjiang is more than 125,000 kilowatts, with annual production of 912.7 billion kilowatt-hours. The government estimates that installed capacity there will reach 400,000 KW by 2010, according to the World Security Institute.
