Test planting of saltwater rice begins

Renowned Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping and his research team planted saltwater-tolerant rice on six plots of saline-alkali land on Monday.

It was the first time this kind of rice has been planted simultaneously on different types of such land, 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.