Dongying: The cotton industry in Northern China shows promising potential this year in the Yellow River Delta, with an expected 5 million acres of cotton harvest to come, much of it from Shandong Province.

Shandong Province has 1.1 million acres in Dongying and 2.4 million acres in Binzhou, and the producing area in the Yellow River Delta is growing annually.

Most of the high-quality cotton fields were transformed from saline to alkaline land with an annual production of over 400,000 ton fine lint, accounting for 50 percent of total production in the Shandong Province.

Wang Wentao, Deputy Director of the Shandong Science and Technology Development Center for Farms and Land Reclamation said that key factors to cultivation in the Yellow River Delta area include a good amount of sunshine, and a mild climate.

Shandong Province provided scientific and technological support to the cotton harvest to combat pests and diseases, and in response a number of high-yielding cotton bases were founded there.

In Kenli County, over 400,000 acres cotton were cultivated.

Editor Li Jing

By Ji Yuan (China Daily Shandong Bureau)