On the vast land of our country, the saline lands were once characterized as “roadblocks” for agricultural development in the form of a “blank-and-blank”. These soils usually contain more than 10g/kg salt, with high slabs and permeable pressure, making it difficult for ordinary crops to survive. However, with the deepening of the concept of “cropping land” and the innovation of salinist land management techniques, a group of highly salt-resistant and economically valuable crop varieties has been successfully screened and promoted, transforming the former “silent” into today's “rich land”. Crop choices for saline land need to be based on the principle of “saline tolerance, eco-adaptability and balance of benefits”, with the following types of crops becoming the core option for the integrated use of saline land。
I. Eco-improvement crops: “soldier forces” for salt
The management of saline lands often begins with ecological restoration, with both salinization and desalinization functions, reducing soil salinity through bioabsorption and laying the foundation for subsequent cultivation. Salted alkaline is a typical “saline-eating plant” which, as a polysaline plant, is able to absorb the salt from the soil into the body in large quantities, with more than 400 kilograms of salt per acre of dry grass and a reduction of more than 85 per cent in soil salinity after three years of cultivation. Not only is the crop de-salinating effect significant, it can also be used as vegetable food and feed farming, achieving a win-win ecological and economic value, and has been scaled up in xinjiang and tani and mageti counties, among others。
The thorium has been dubbed “the king of pastures” and its saline tolerance and soil improvement are equally prominent. In the high-salin soil of the hebei hokkai, five years of continuous cultivation of thorium have seen an 18 per cent increase in soil organic matter and a 60 per cent reduction in salinity, resulting in a virtuous cycle of “grass-modified soil and grass-fed livestock”. As good-quality forage, aluminum provides a stable source of feed for local dairy development, with the average acre yield doubling over traditional cultivation patterns. In addition, such crops are found in fields such as sorghum and sweet sorghum, which can be used as green fertilizers for improved soil, sweet sorghum for high salinity and high biomass, and can be used in a variety of areas such as sugar, feed, etc., and perform well in the pilot salin lands in hebei, xinjiang。
Food crops: “food bags” breakthroughs in saline lands
In the context of the strategic need to ensure food security, the choice of salt-resistant food crops has become key to the use of saline. Dry alkaline is a “home-owned variety” of heavy salin lands in the north, such as the hebei selected “tehema 19”, which is resistant to drought and has steady yields, with an acre production of up to 405 kg, well above the 50-100 kg of traditional varieties, in the new zone of chuzhou. This wheat, which is not irrigated, can grow by natural rainfall alone, has a unique taste of processed flour, has become a niche product for the market and has built a whole-industry chain of “breeding-plant-processing”。
Salt-resistant rice, for its part, has made a breakthrough in the southern coastal and inland salinous lands. Heavy saline plots in lopo county, xinjiang and tanya, which are growing salt-resistant rice acreage at 550 kg through technologies such as desalination and underground drip irrigation, have been expanded to 400 acres this year. In hebei tang, the integrated rice fish farming model of the “paddy field + pond”, which combines saline-resistant rice with aquaculture, increases land use and reduces soil salinity through water management, achieving “one water for both ends and one field for both harvests”. In addition, the improvement of the heavy salinization of spring wheat in xinjiang lake county, resulting in the production of more than 300 kilograms of acre, breaks the traditional perception that “salin lands cannot grow fine grains”。
Cash crops: the “rich engine” of saline
The cultivation of cash crops brings higher value added to saline lands and is an important means for farmers to increase their incomes. The red dates have shown a strong adaptability in the heavy saline land on the western edge of the takrama desert in xinjiang. Through the techniques of salting wells and drip irrigation, xinjiang produces an increase of 50 kg in the dateland acreage of the third division of the corps, and the quality promotion drive price is 0. 2 dollars higher per kilogram. Despite its vulnerability to saline in traditional cultivation, a balance between ecological and economic benefits has been achieved in the heavy saline areas of gansu, improved through “silver-pressed salt + bioorganic fertilizers” combined with crops such as sunflower and ricin。
Salt-resistant varieties of vegetables and oil crops are also emerging. Following the improvement of the heavy salinized land in xinjiang lake county, the soil salinity was reduced from 19g/kg to 8g/kg, with the production of 450 kg of pepper acre, reaching the level of normal cropland. The north-south eco-agricultural pilot stations have successfully grown crops such as cotton, sunflower, beet, etc., by reducing the salt content of the sea's heavy saline to 3g/kg through salt-water ice irrigation techniques. Gansu civil service promotes slab-blue roots in medium salin, planting ricin in heavy salin, creating a “improved + growing + processing” specialty industry model that makes saline a specialty pharmacological base。
Specialization farming: “blue grain silos” of saline water
In addition to the growing industry, saline water resources from saline sites have been fully utilized to develop specialty aquaculture. The farming base in xinjiang alar uses saline to raise white-to-shrimps in south america, with 6. 35 million tails of shrimp seedlings and 1. 5 million tails of various species, with a very high annual income. In the southern region of the kazi-kashi region, salt water farming has reached its initial scale, not only to address the problem of “food poverty” in the interior, but also to further improve the soil salinity in the surrounding areas through the water cycle, creating ecological closed loops of “culture union”。
Concluding remarks: the technology-enabled saline agricultural revolution
Crop cultivation in saline areas has long gone beyond a single “selection” to a “reform-plant-plant-process” chain system. From the ecological desalinization of salinized pellets to the food breakthroughs of dry alkalin wheat, to the special industries of red dates and shrimp, the spread of suitable crops has been accompanied by technological innovations such as secret pipe desalination, salt water use and microbial improvement. As the integration of national saline sites is advanced, more salt-resistant varieties will be cultivated and more cultivation patterns will be explored. In the future, the saline land is no longer a “constraint” for agricultural development, but rather a “potential” for securing food security and expanding agricultural space, which, thanks to the power of science and technology, was once a “silent land” and a source of gold hope。
