Workers plant sea rice seedlings in a test field at Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center on May 7, 2017 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China. Yuan Longping and his team started a research to cultivate new strains of sea rice at the center. Photo Credit: VCG via Getty Images
EnvironmentSociety ChinaGrowing Rice in Seawater Works!
China has found a groundbreaking way to boost its production of rice to ensure food security, by growing its precious cereal in an unlikely liquid body: seawater!
The development of “seawater rice” – by the late Yuan Longping – is a huge step forward in China’s goal to expand its production of rice.
“China has 1.5 billion mu [247 million acres] of saline-alkali soil and 3 million mu [494,000 acres] can be improved,” says Wan Jili, director of the technology R&D department of the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center.
The domestic planting area of seawater rice – or saline-alkali tolerant rice – almost reached 100,000 acres by the end of 2021 and should exceed 165,000 acres by the end of 2022, a milestone for the country. The country already has planting areas in seven provinces: Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, East China’s Zhejiang, Shandong, and Jiangsu provinces, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang, and Liaoning provinces, and North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
