Research progress in the key technologies and equipment for cotton planting mechanization

Cotton is one of the most important strategic materials and cash crops. The planting area and output of cotton have been ranked among the top in the world. Among them, cotton planting has been one of the basic links in the whole process during production. The mechanization of cotton planting has been the key bottleneck to restricting the cotton industry at present. The reason can be that the mechanical planting of cotton can be utilized to improve the quality and efficiency of cotton production, and then enhance the competitive advantage of cotton production, which is directly related to the sustainable development of the national cotton industry. The cotton mechanization planting can be divided into the cotton live broadcast and transplanted seedlings. Most previous efforts were focused on the optimization of equipment structure, flow field simulation, and operation performance tests. The cotton planting mechanization technology and equipment system have begun to take shape during this time. Cotton planting mechanization should follow the development direction of precision agriculture for the promising goal of high yield, quality, and efficiency, indicating a major practical demand in the cotton industry. The development mode of the cotton industry can be changed to enhance the quality and efficiency, as well as the competitiveness of the international market. It is also the research focus of the whole process mechanization and scale of the cotton industry. In this review, the current situation and characteristics of cotton planting were summarized on the key technologies and equipment in China. There was a trend of westward expansion of the cotton area in the Yangtze River basin and the Yellow River basin, whereas, the northwest inland cotton area gradually served as the main body of cotton planting in China. Especially, the sowing area of cotton in Xinjiang increased the fastest, while the proportion of cotton gradually increased, and the cotton in Xinjiang was the backbone of national cotton production for the new main producing area. Two technologies of cotton planting mechanization were proposed to emphatically analyze the research status and trends during cotton seedling cultivation, transplanting, and cotton live streaming. Furthermore, the opportunities and challenges were summarized to combine with the background of precision agriculture and the production requirements of the cotton industry. The future research directions and suggestions were addressed to optimize the layout of cotton-producing areas, in order to improve the competitiveness of cotton production efficiency under the planting structure at a reasonable level. Moreover, the independent innovation ability and technology reserve can be expected to strengthen the independent research and development of the cotton industry. A scientific and reasonable system can be formed to promote the deep integration of agricultural machinery, agronomy, and credit under mechanized cotton seeding. Therefore, the allocation of resources can be optimized to comprehensively promote the green, high-quality, and sustainable development of cotton production. The finding can provide a strong reference for cotton planting mechanization and equipment innovation. © 2023 Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. All rights reserved.