【CHINA DAILY】Closely integrated sector set to flourish

Experts  inspect  tobacco  planted  on  saline-alkaline  land  in  the  Agricultural  High-tech  Industry  Demonstration  Area  of  the  Yellow  River  Delta  in  Dongying,  Shandong  province.  ZHAO  YIMENG/CHINA  DAILY

Last  month,  the  National  Agricultural  Science  and  Technology  Innovation  Association  for  Saline-Alkali  Land  was  established  at  an  agricultural  demonstration  area  in  East  China's  Shandong  province.  Its  aim  is  to  integrate  business  resources  in  the  sector  and  build  a  platform  to  improve  land  quality.

Tang  Huajun,  former  president  of  the  Chinese  Academy  of  Agricultural  Sciences  and  an  academician  of  the  Chinese  Academy  of  Engineering,  was  recently  elected  as  chairman  of  the  association.

Wu  Wenbin,  director  of  the  Institute  of  Agricultural  Resources  and  Regional  Planning  at  CAAS,  said  the  association's  current  tasks  include  a  special  survey  of  saline-alkaline  land  as  part  of  the  third  national  soil  condition  census,  which  started  earlier  this  year  and  will  run  through  to  2025  under  the  direction  of  the  State  Council,  China's  Cabinet.

Among  the  other  key  tasks  are  planning  of  major  projects  and  a  summit,  in  addition  to  establishing  standards  for  agriculture  on  saline-alkaline  soils,  said  Wu,  who  is  also  the  association's  vice-chairman.

Li  Yuyi,  chief  scientist  of  saline-alkaline  soil  improvement  at  CAAS,  said  related  work  involves  several  disciplines  focused  on  breeding  seeds,  their  cultivation  and  fertilization  techniques.

"The  integrated  efforts  of  scientific  institutions,  universities  and  State-owned  enterprises  will  promote  the  industrialization  of  advances  in  the  use  of  saline-alkaline  soils,  which  are  regarded  as  reserve  arable  land,"  he  said.

Members  of  the  association  include  about  50  institutions,  such  as  provincial  academies  of  agricultural  sciences  and  State-owned  enterprises  that  are  focused  on  improving  soil  quality,  irrigation  and  land  development.

Chen  Bichang,  mayor  of  Dongying  in  Shandong,  where  the  association  was  founded,  said  its  establishment  is  conducive  to  the  integration  of  scientific  and  technological  forces  and  industrial  resources,  the  promotion  of  collaborative  innovation  research  in  saline-alkaline  soils  and  acceleration  of  the  industrialization  of  sci-tech  advances.

Shandong  is  rich  in  saline-alkaline  land  resources.  Active  exploration  has  been  conducted  in  the  comprehensive  management  of  such  land.  Meanwhile,  crop  strains  such  as  saline-tolerant  soybeans,  wheat,  cotton  and  vegetables  have  been  grown  in  recent  years.

Jiang  Weiliang,  an  official  with  the  Shandong  Bureau  of  Agriculture  and  Rural  Affairs,  said  the  province  will  support  the  association  in  terms  of  branding  and  industrial  resources.

Major  projects  launched  by  the  academy  are  expected  to  raise  the  yields  of  crops,  forage  varieties  and  special  plants,  setting  a  good  model  for  the  transformation  of  large-scale  saline-alkaline  land.

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