New rice hybrid grows on salty lands

SHENZHEN: A Chinese scientist announced yesterday in Shenzhen that he has successfully developed hybridized rice that could grow in salina - land areas or bodies of water encrusted with crystalline salt.

"The experiment in Shandong province showed the hybridized rice could survive in salina, and the output for 1 mu (about 667 sq m) of land could reach 360 kg," Zhu Peikun, inventor of the technology, said.

Ordinary rice died when researchers attempted to grow it on the same land, he said.