Cotton Genomics and Genetics 2025, Vol.16, No.2, 95-106 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/cgg 103 6.3 Effectiveness evaluation Thanks to the progress of post-harvest management technology, the quality and yield of Xinjiang cotton have been steadily improved. On the one hand, the problem of excessive impurities in machine-picked cotton has been alleviated. Data show that by improving machinery and processing technology, the average impurity rate of machine-picked cotton in Xinjiang has dropped from 6% in the early days to 3%-4%, close to the level of hand-picked cotton, and indicators such as fiber length and strength have also remained stable. The consistency of cotton fibers has been improved, meeting the requirements of textile enterprises for large-scale cotton use (Tian et al., 2017). On the other hand, the efficiency of harvesting and processing has been greatly improved, and the comprehensive economic benefits are significant. According to statistics, the total output of cotton in Xinjiang has increased from 4.5 million tons per year in the mid-2010s to about 5.4 million tons in recent years, and the proportion of high-quality lint has also increased. Lou et al. (2023) pointed out that Xinjiang cotton has achieved high-quality production, with the yield and mechanization level leading the country. At the same time, the scale of cotton planting and processing has been improved, and the income of cotton farmers has increased steadily. Taking a large cotton-growing county in southern Xinjiang as an example, through the unified machine picking of cooperatives and the joint cotton ginning of enterprises, farmers have increased their income by about 0.1 yuan per kilogram of seed cotton due to quality optimization, and the per capita income has increased by thousands of yuan throughout the year. In addition, the establishment of a quality traceability system has improved the credibility of Xinjiang cotton in the market. In recent years, domestic textile enterprises have become more aware of "Xinjiang high-quality cotton" and have increased the proportion of Xinjiang cotton used in raw material procurement. Many exported textiles are clearly marked as using Xinjiang cotton, adding value to the products. 7 Future Development Direction 7.1 Digital intelligent system integration The Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role in post-harvest management of cotton. In the future, cotton ginning plants are expected to develop into "smart cotton ginning plants" - through sensor networks, massive data from seed cotton moisture, impurity content to equipment operation status are obtained, and artificial intelligence algorithms are used for analysis and decision-making to achieve intelligent optimization of the entire process (Zhang et al., 2000). For example, the foreign fiber intelligent identification robot based on machine vision will become more mature, and can automatically remove foreign objects such as plastic film and packaging lines mixed in cotton, greatly reducing the cost of manual sorting. For another example, the introduction of digital twin technology to virtually map and simulate the actual processing process can predict the impact of different parameters on product quality, thereby optimizing process settings. Textile companies also hope that the quality of upstream raw materials will be more stable and controllable, so the data connection with cotton ginning companies will be closer, forming a big data platform for raw material-product quality to guide variety improvement and processing improvement. The in-depth application of digitalization and intelligence will enable post-harvest management of cotton to enter a new stage of precise control and autonomous optimization. 7.2 Localized customization and differentiated management Given the different climatic conditions, variety types and production scales in different production areas, future technical solutions need to pay more attention to localized customization. For example, in the hot and humid cotton-producing areas of the Yangtze River Basin, the focus should be on developing small, mobile seed cotton drying and storage devices to cope with scattered planting and rainy weather; while in arid areas such as Xinjiang, mechanical harvesting and large-scale centralized processing models need to be further optimized. For example, for high-end varieties such as long-staple cotton, special post-harvest processing specifications and equipment (such as slow cotton gins and separate grading and storage) can be formulated to protect their ultra-long fibers from damage and meet the raw material requirements for high-count yarn production (Yehia et al., 2021). Due to limited resources, small and medium-sized cotton producers or family farms may be able to obtain customized post-harvest management support through shared factories, hosting services and other models in the future, thereby improving the balanced development of the entire industry. In addition, China has a vast territory, and
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