China working to grow rice in saline-alkali environments

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chinese experts are currently working to change the notion of thousands of years old that rice crop is required to be cultivated in places with high temperatures, humidity and short days.

A team headed by Yuan Longping, acclaimed as the father of hybrid rice, is currently engaged in the research to yield more rice in saline-alkali environments. 

The team has started the trial in a farm located on the plateau's Qaidam Basin where there is a large area of saline-alkali land that makes it difficult for crops to grow. 

It is also frequented by drought, hail, frost and other natural disasters. The researchers from the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center moved strains of cold and alkali-resistant rice they cultivated from a greenhouse to the saline-alkali soil on the plateau for trial planting.

They plan to plant 6.67 hectares during the trial and use manual and mechanical methods to conduct observation and provide samples for future large-scale planting, the centre’s engineer, Zhang Guodong, revealed. 

Since 2019, the centre has promoted sea rice in seven major saline-alkaline areas in China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the researchers, new experimental centers and planting bases will be established in Qinghai in order to explore new ways for plateau agricultural production.