Yuan Longping: 300 kilograms of high salt-tolerant rice per mu in three years

Xinhua News Agency, Sanya, December 20 (Reporter Luo Jiang) "We are confident that within three years, we will cultivate sea rice with salt resistance of more than 0.8% and yield of more than 300 kg per mu." Yuan Longping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said.

Yuan Longping pointed out that the area of saline-alkali land in China is more than 1 billion mu, and under the circumstances of the increasing shortage of cultivated land resources, if we can cultivate and popularize sea rice with high saline-alkali tolerance, so that a large area of saline-alkali land and shoals with no plants on the seaside can be turned into arable land, it is of great significance to ensure food security.

Yuan Longping said: popularizing the planting of 100 million mu of salt-tolerant rice with a salt tolerance limit of 0.8% and a yield of more than 300kg per mu can increase the annual output by 30 billion kg, which is equivalent to Hunan's total grain output for the whole year.

It is understood that wild sea rice was first found in the estuaries of major rivers and rivers, and it has three characteristics: no fertilization, resistance to diseases and insect pests, and tolerance to salt and alkali. But the yield is low, and the enthusiasm of farmers to plant is not high.

Yuan Longping said that at present, the most advanced saline-alkali tolerant rice strain in China can achieve a yield of 400 kg per mu, but it can only be planted on a tidal flat with a salt content of 0.3%, and its industrialization promotion is greatly restricted.

The Qingdao Sea Rice Research and Development Center was established in October this year, with Yuan Longping as the chief scientist. Yuan Longping said that his research team has introduced dozens of rice germplasm resources with strong saline-alkali tolerance from the International Rice Research Institute. The research team will screen out the natural salt-resistant, alkali-resistant and disease-resistant genes of wild rice through gene sequencing technology, domesticate and combine them with molecular breeding techniques, and select a series of rice varieties with a yield of more than 300 kg per mu that can be popularized in industrialization.