Xinjiang company exports drip irrigation technology to Uzbekistan

URUMQI — A company in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has exported drip irrigation technology under plastic film mulch to Uzbekistan.

The technology has been applied to cotton fields, covering an area of 406.7 hectares in the Sirdaryo state of Uzbekistan as a modern water-saving demonstration project, said Yang Kaiwen, a planning director of the project management center from the Xinjiang Tianye water-saving irrigation corporation.

Initiated at the beginning of this year, the project saw irrigation facilities and related machines delivered from China at the end of February. Installation and application of the irrigation system took one and a half months, said Yang.

Compared with regular irrigation and plantation, the cotton sprouted five days earlier, according to Yang.

The water-saving demonstration project will expand the plantation area, with more local technical personnel to be trained.

Xinjiang Tianye is China's largest water-saving facility development and production company. Primarily introducing drip irrigation technology from Israel, the company has developed a series of irrigation facilities and products. This helps save 50 percent of water and 30 percent of fertilizers and increase crop yields by 50 percent compared with the traditional plantation, according to the company.

In recent years, the company has explored markets along the Belt and Road, applying the water-saving technology to 10,000 hectares of farmland in 17 countries, including Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.