China food security: advanced rice thriving where most vegetation dies – the salt deserts of Xinjiang

China’s genetically modified rice doesn’t mind a bit of salt in the soil, and the grain is said to be making salinated land arable for other seasonal crops such as cotton

Beijing has been casting the spotlight on Xinjiang for its achievements in bolstering the nation’s self-sufficiency drive

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Chinese scientists examine a genetically modified strain of salt-tolerant rice. Photo: Weibo

Published: 8:00am, 17 Oct 2023Updated: 11:21am, 20 Oct 2023

On the rim of Xinjiang’s desert, in a region where the soil is so salty that most vegetation refuses to grow, China is touting rising outputs of salt-tolerant rice as further evidence that its food-security drive has taken root.

Beijing expects rising yields of genetically modified crops, especially in remote and rural areas where arable soil is rare, to help serve as a long-term solution to ensuring that the nation’s 1.4 billion people are kept fed.

After an on-site inspection on Friday, an official survey group said that the final yield of salt-tolerant rice in Aksu – in the inland Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, at the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in western China – was estimated to be 573.8kg (1,265 pounds) per mu, according to Xinhua, using a Chinese unit of area equal to 0.0667 hectares, or 0.16 acres.

The per-unit yield was nearly 150kg higher per mu higher than the average output in salt-tolerant rice fields. It was not clear how long they have been growing rice in that region, but the assessed fields were said to have been recently reclaimed from fallow land.

China’s main rice-producing regions are located in the southern and northeastern provinces, where the geography and seasonal climates are favourable for rice cultivation.

Rice production remains limited in Xinjiang, which is more known as the nation’s largest cotton-producing region and as a major producer of fruits. However, China has been growing less cotton in Xinjiang since the US’ Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act went into effect.

And amid Beijing’s self-sufficiency drive in recent months, party mouthpieces have been playing up Xinjiang for its local-level achievements. In August, they touted a technological breakthrough in seawater aquafarming in Xinjiang, with freshwater fish, king prawn, abalone and lobsters grown at a fishery on the edge of the desert.