LAND OF HOPE
Green rice seedlings dotting swathes of barren land in Qaidam Basin on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a refreshing sight since the land, with its high salt content, could hardly grow even grass in the past.
It’s hard to imagine that the crop, which requires a substantial amount of fresh water to survive, is able to grow in such an inhospitable environment. It’s the first time the experiment to plant saline-alkaline tolerant rice strains has been carried out at such a high altitude, 2,800 meters above sea level.
The varieties were successfully developed in 2017 by a
