Cotton Genomics and Genetics 2025, Vol.16, No.2, 95-106 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/cgg 101 straw crushing and returning to the field, making feed, cultivating edible fungi, producing biomass fuel or artificial board materials (Phadtare and Kalbande, 2024). This not only reduces waste emissions, but also brings additional benefits to farmers. In addition, cotton dust and debris generated during ginning and spinning, such as cotton shells and leaf scraps, can also be used as organic fertilizer raw materials or biomass power generation fuel. A study found that making biochar from waste impurities produced by cotton processing for soil improvement can increase soil organic matter and help fix carbon (Howell et al., 2024). Another example is that cottonseed hulls are mixed with other agricultural and forestry wastes to make pellet fuel, which can partially replace fossil energy. In general, while improving cotton post-harvest management technology, by building a comprehensive utilization system for by-products, we can achieve a win-win situation for the environment and the economy, and promote clean production and circular development of the cotton industry chain. 5.3 Impact on farmers and industries The promotion of post-harvest management technology is not only reflected in micro-quality and cost, but also has a macro-impact on the livelihoods of cotton farmers and the industry structure. On the one hand, the adoption of advanced technology has improved labor productivity and product quality, which helps cotton farmers increase their income. For example, mechanical harvesting and scientific storage reduce post-harvest losses, and notarized inspection and quality traceability improve the bargaining power of high-quality cotton, which will feed back to growers. At the same time, some leading cotton processing companies have lowered post-harvest processing services through the "company + farmer" model, providing cotton farmers with unified post-harvest drying, processing and sales channels, so that small farmers can also share the benefits of technology. On the other hand, the application of new technologies may also bring short-term structural pain. For example, the large-scale use of cotton picking machinery may cause the labor force that relies on cotton picking to face employment transformation while reducing the demand for seasonal cotton pickers (Chandel and Sharma, 2022). In this regard, the government and society need to help surplus labor transfer to new links such as processing, grading, and logistics through skills training and industrial guidance to achieve the reconfiguration of labor resources. From the industry level, the improvement of post-harvest management technology will promote the development of the cotton industry in the direction of scale and intensiveness. Large-scale cotton processing companies with adequate quality management have more advantages in market competition and promote the improvement of industry concentration. At the same time, strict quality standards and traceability certification will also help to regulate market order, curb the phenomenon of selling inferior products as good ones, and maintain the overall brand image of "China Cotton". The supply of higher-quality cotton will improve the raw material security of domestic textiles, reduce the dependence on high-quality cotton imports, and have positive significance for the security of the textile industry chain. In the international market, as sustainability and high quality become mainstream requirements, Chinese cotton has achieved both quality and environmental protection standards through technological upgrades, and is expected to reshape its competitiveness. 6 Case Study: Xinjiang as an Example 6.1 Regional challenge analysis The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is China’s largest cotton-producing region and an important global cotton production base. Its special natural and social conditions make cotton post-harvest management face unique challenges, but also breed opportunities for large-scale application of new technologies (Figure 2). Xinjiang is located in an arid and semi-arid climate zone with sufficient sunshine but early frost period. Cotton needs to be harvested in a timely manner within the limited frost-free period. This has promoted the popularization of efficient mechanical harvesting (Feng et al., 2024). However, the quality problem of machine-picked cotton was also prominent at one time: due to the extensive machine-picking operation, the impurities and short fibers in the seed cotton were high, which brought pressure to subsequent processing. At the same time, the planting scale in Xinjiang production areas is large, the plots are scattered, and the individual post-harvest processing and storage and transportation capabilities of cotton farmers are limited. In history, there have been cases where cotton has become moldy or contaminated by sand due to improper open-air stacking (Tian et al., 2013). In addition, Xinjiang cotton fiber varieties are diverse, including both long-staple cotton and
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