Researchers harvest seawater rice in Qingdao, Shandong province.A field test on Thursday of yields from an alkali-resisting "sea rice," developed by Yuan Longping, China's "father of hybrid rice," has exceeded expectations, according to scientists involved in the study. The Chinese scientists carried out the test on a field at a research center in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, and said that it paved the way for greater use of similar rice in China's 100 million hectares of saline-alkaline soil. The test center, for which Yuan is the chief scientist, was established in October 2016. In this test, the sea rice yield from saline-alkaline soil with a salinity of 3 per millage, was about 390 kilograms per 0.07 hectare, after using soil conditioner. This increased the yield by 20 percent, compared with rice yields without soil conditioner, said Wu Zhaohui, a fellow of the China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center, who joined the yield test in Qingdao. (Photo/VCG)
