Chinese Researchers Discover a High-Salinity Resistant Plant Variety to Improve Arable Land in Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
The area of salt-affected land in Xinjiang reaches up to 110,000 km2, accounting for one-third of the total salt-affected land in China, significantly hindering sustainable agricultural development in the region.
Suaeda salsa plant. (Photo: Bing Liu).
Since the early 2000s, the Xinjiang Institute of Geography and Ecology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has been studying salt-affected areas across Xinjiang and screening hundreds of salt-tolerant plant species with the ability to absorb salt and improve soil quality. Ultimately, they discovered a highly effective plant variety scientifically named Suaeda salsa.
Suaeda salsa is a flowering plant belonging to the Amaranthaceae family, with a distribution range spanning from Central Europe, Eastern Europe, to Siberia and China. The genus Suaeda currently comprises about 110 described species, most of which are found in saline or alkaline environments.
A cluster of Suaeda salsa in a trial planting in Inner Mongolia. (Photo: Bing Liu)
The research team tested Suaeda salsa in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia. Results showed that these plants could absorb and process hundreds of tons of salt per km2 of salt-affected land annually. Some barren saline-alkaline areas were transformed into normal arable land after planting Suaeda salsa for three to four years.
The Xinjiang Institute of Geography and Ecology also discovered that Suaeda salsa can be used as a vegetable and livestock feed, as well as help green saline-alkaline land. They have provided seeds free of charge to farmers, research institutes, and businesses, hoping to rapidly propagate this special salt-tolerant crop.
