Sea rice is harvested in the Huojian saltworks on Daishan Island, Zhoushan. [Photo/WeChat account: zjzsrbs]

Huojian saltworks on Daishan Island, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province recently reaped a bumper harvest of more than 1,700 mu (113.33 hectares) of "sea rice", local media reported on Nov 25.

Sea rice is the nickname of the alkali-resisting rice that can grow in soil with high salinity and alkalinity.

It is not easy to grow rice on Daishan as local residents used to trap the sea water to evaporate brine in the sun for salt, which led to the gradual increase of salt and alkali content in Daishan's soil.

Even special sea rice can only grow in soil with 0.6 percent salt content, while the land on Daishan has salt content as high as 3 percent.

Starting from 2018, the Zhoushan Research Institute of Agriculture and Forestry carried out experiments on saline-alkali land improvement and introduced alkali-resisting rice in Huojian saltworks.

The institute has also carried out research on cultivation techniques of rice on saline-alkali land in the saltworks.

With the preliminary success in planting sea rice, Zhoushan plans to expand the cultivated areas to improve the rate of grain self-sufficiency. There are 37,500 mu of tideland in Zhoushan that can be used to grow sea rice.

Statistics from UNESCO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations show that saline and alkaline land accounts for 20 percent of the total cultivated land in the world, with China possessing 280 million mu of saline and alkaline land.