Food security breakthrough for China with ‘new record’ rapeseed production from salty soil

China has reported “record” progress in growing rapeseed in salty soil, a move expected to reduce reliance on imports amid Beijing’s food security drive, although there are still seen to be “many steps” before widespread use of the technology is implemented.

New salt-tolerant species and technologies were trialled in 200 mu (13.3 hectares, 32.8 acres) of salty land in Dongtai – a coastal county-level city in east China’s Jiangsu province, according to a report released by China Science Daily, a newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The report added that “a new record of rapeseed production from salty soil” was made with a total of 323.87kg (714lbs) of rapeseed per mu harvested, representing an increase of 59.5 per cent from the average yield.

The total oil reproduction from the rapeseed could reach 163.17kg per mu, which represents an increase of 82.7 per cent.

“There is 185 million mu of saline land currently in China that can be used for growing crops while the country is facing high risks of supply security because 70 per cent of plant-based oil is imported from overseas,” the report noted.

Rapeseed is China’s foremost oil producing crop that has an outstanding salt-tolerant ability.

The move is the latest evidence of Beijing’s self-sufficiency drive, which is believed to profoundly influence the world’s major farm produce exporting nations.

China imported 1.06 million tonnes of rapeseed oil last year, a fall of 50.7 per cent from a year earlier, government data showed. Russia accounted for around half of the total imports, followed by one fifth from Canada.

Xi, who has long called for the rice bowl to be firmly held in the hands of Chinese people, visited saline land in the northern province of Hebei in mid-May, calling for better use of such land to enhance the country’s food security.