CAS Scientists Cultivate New Salt-tolerant Wheat
Scientists with the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (EGI), Chinese Academy of Sciences, have recently cultivated a new species of salt-tolerant wheat with an output of more than 400 kilograms per mu (about 666.67 square meters).
With obvious advantages of salt-tolerance and high yield, the new species "Xindong No. 34" can produce 403.32 kilograms of wheat per mu, ranking the first in all testing species. This makes its harvest 6.89 percent higher than that of "Xindong No.26", the first salt-tolerant wheat in China.
The new medium gluten wheat is also good at disease-resistance and lodging-resistance, said Ren Wei, associate researcher of the EGI.
Soil salinization is widespread in west China, which poses as a great obstacle for crop production. Current farming and irrigation methods also threaten to spread secondary salinization. Solonchak agriculture such as cultivation and promotion of salt-tolerant wheat will help relieve pressure of traditional salnization control, and reduce its cost of both financial and time input, said researchers.
