Chinese saltwater-tolerant rice grown successfully in Dubai desert

Rice developed in China that can be planted in seawater has been successfully grown in a test field in Dubai, reports the Xinhua News Agency.

Scientist Yuan Longping selects a seawater rice seedling on May 28, 2018, in Qingdao, Shandong Province. [Photo: IC]

Seawater rice, also known as salt-alkali-tolerant rice, is designed to grow in tidal flats and on saline-alkaline land, and can survive being immersed in seawater. Authorities in Dubai have plans to set aside 10 percent of the landmass of the emirate for the planting of seawater rice, as part of efforts to improve the country's food security and to protect the local ecosystem.

The Sea-Rice Research and Development Center in Qingdao, led by Yuan Longping, China's "father of hybrid rice", launched the experiment in January. Researchers selected scores of samples of the seawater tolerant strains to plant in a desert field to assess their suitability.

According to an evaluation undertaken last week of early-maturing rice samples, it's expected that yields will reach 750 kilos per square kilometer, and that two samples could surpass 600 kilos per square kilometer, in accordance with the expectations of researchers. The evaluation of the late-maturing rice samples will start in late June.

The Sea-Rice Research and Development Center and the team in Dubai will explore establishing a 100 hectare test field in the second half of this year, and a 100 hectare standard field in 2019, said Liu Jiayin, from the Qingdao research center.

China is also promoting the saltwater rice in Southeast and South Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and India.