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The early days of May can be very hot in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with daytime highs at 34 degrees centigrade in some areas, almost 10 degrees higher than that of Beijing.

This northwestern region is even hotter in the eyes of T. C. Tso, board chairman of the US-based Institute of International Development and Education in Agriculture and Life Science, coming to the region for his eighth time with two other world-renowned agriculture experts. As the nation taps western China's natural resources to catch up with the eastern region in economic gains, Tso, a longtime adviser to China's agricultural development, believes that Xinjiang, the west of the west, could serve as a base for gearing up the less developed regions to catch up with the developed eastern coastal areas.

"There should be a priority in the country's bold development strategy in western China," Tso said. "Xinjiang should be given this priority with its rich resources."

Western China, which covers 5.4 million square kilometres, has a population of about 300 million and includes Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces, Tibet, Ningxia and Xinjiang autonomous regions and Chongqing Municipality.

The image of Xinjiang has long been stereotyped as remote and desolate, with vast deserts and arid plains stretching for thousands of kilometres.

But ever since his first visit to the region in 1984, Tso, 83, has become an ardent advocate and lobbyist for the region's unfathomable potential.

"Xinjiang is multi-rich," Tso wrote after the trip. It is "rich in arable land, pasture, forestry; rich in oil, gas, coal; rich in sunshine and mineral resources." Moreover, Tso believes that the area is even rich in water resources, a factor often described as the bottleneck suffocating the area's development.

An overall survey conducted in 1982 indicated that there are water resources of 88 billion cubic metres in the region.

But the area is subject to constant water problems due to the uneven distribution of water resources throughout different seasons of the year and the whole area. Farmers in many areas have to fight drought in springtime, and flooding in the summertime.

Even though many projects have been initiated to build more reservoirs and dams in mountain areas in recent years, there is still an annual lack of water, up to 4 billion cubic metres, for agriculture alone, according to Yimum, head of the region's department of water resources.

"One key problem is how to use water efficiently, promoting water-saving irrigation and plastic foam agriculture," Tso said.

The Karez Underground Irrigation Channels in Turpan impressed Tso the most. "But I am sorry that the network of channels cannot be introduced to all the areas in Xinjiang, due to geological differences throughout the region," Tso said.

A bold plan proposed by Tso includes channeling water from the Tongtian River in nearby Qinghai Province to the western part of Xinjiang, and reservoirs built in the upper reaches of several rivers flowing westward to neighbouring countries.