Test planting saltwater padi

BEIJING: Renowned Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping and his research team planted saltwater-tolerant padi on six plots of saline-alkali land. It was the trial run for this type of padi, a major step in exploring its commercial viability.

The planting sites are in Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region; Daqing, Heilongjiang province; Dongying and Qingdao, Shandong province; Wenzhou, Zhejiang province; and Yan’an, Shaanxi province.

The sites represent virtually every type of saline-alkali land in China.

So-called saltwater padi is designed to grow in tidal flats or other areas with heavy salt content.

“These planting practices aim to test saltwater rice’s performance, yield, taste and cost when grown on different types of saline-alkali land,” said Zhang Guodong, deputy director at the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Centre in Shandong province.

The centre, led by Yuan, China’s “father of hybrid rice”, was founded in 2016 to help expand the farming of salt-tolerant padi types.

Zhang said researchers and planters applied several methods based on the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, and tried to improve productivity and land use.

Besides testing saltwater padi’s performance, the six saline-alkali areas have different orientations.

For example, in Kashgar, poor families from ethnic groups have been organised to plant seawater rice to help poverty alleviation.

In Dongying, saline land is expected to provide crops to support civilian-military integration.

The six plots are expected to become fertile land in two or three years, and other saline lands will be used to examine saltwater--tolerant rices species. — China Daily/Asia News Network