Food security takes root: how China’s Xinjiang is at forefront of national push

Chinese agricultural scientists have turned 40 hectares (99 acres) of salty soil in Xinjiang into fertile land capable of supporting multiple crops – part of a national strategy to bolster food security by transforming vast swathes of non-arable terrain into farms.

The breakthrough followed seven years of effort in the Uygur autonomous region’s Shihezi, led by a research team from a local university, the state-owned People’s Daily reported. The previously degraded soil now sustains wheat, rapeseed and other crops.

Professor Zhang Fenghua from the College of Agriculture at Shihezi University introduced “Huayouza 62” – a saline-alkali-tolerant variety of rapeseed – to degraded plots in 2020. The harvested rapeseed was ploughed back into the soil as green manure, enriching the soil with organic matter. As soil quality improved, farmers successfully cultivated winter wheat, cotton and tomatoes.

Xinjiang, which accounts for about one-sixth of China’s land mass, plays a crucial role in Beijing’s land reclamation strategy. Despite hosting about 7.1 million hectares (17.5 million acres) of arable land, it also possesses about one-third of the country’s total salt deserts, according to official data.