County in Jilin transforms saline land into crab, water bamboo farms

In Jilin province, fields once crusted with white salts are now home to crabs moving between rice plants as workers tend rows of water bamboo, an aquatic vegetable more commonly seen in southern China.

The scene is a result of a nearly four-decade transformation in Zhenlai county, Baicheng. Once among the areas worst affected by soda-saline soil, the county now has about 105,000 hectares of paddy fields — the largest area in Jilin — and has become a leading aquaculture producer.

The change began in 1988, when agricultural scientists started testing salt-tolerant rice varieties and improving nursery and cultivation methods. Water from the Nenjiang River was channeled through irrigation networks, while soil treatment, new crop varieties, and mechanization gradually brought more land into production.