China successfully grows rice in harsh desert regions

Chinese scientists have halved the growth cycle of a common rice variety grown in desert greenhouses in Xinjiang.

State broadcaster CCTV said the test was the first success of the new technique in a climate-controlled environment in the desert , paving the way for hopes of rapid farming in the year-round dry region.

China has a smaller arable land area relative to its population. (Illustration photo: Xinhua News Agency).

The achievement is part of China's efforts to increase food self-sufficiency, a national priority as climate change takes its toll and global trade fluctuates rapidly. Efforts to grow crops in barren or abandoned areas are becoming more necessary, as China has a smaller arable land area relative to its population.

According to researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, this experiment was carried out using soilless farming methods, temperature control and artificial lighting. The results showed that the traditional rice variety was ready for harvest in just 60 days. The testing took place in Hotan, a county in the southwest of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Meanwhile, with conventional farming methods, this process will take from 120 to 150 days in large rice growing areas in the south or northeast.

Rice growing at this rate has been recorded in experimental facilities as early as 2021, but the success in the Xinjiang trial offers wider applicability because of the cost of construction and equipment. There are fewer establishments in this place, this area also has longer days and the temperature difference between day and night is more obvious.

Yang Qichang, project leader and chief scientist of the Urban Agriculture Department of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said the works in Hotan cost 350 yuan ($48) per square meter. ² , only 1/3 the cost of greenhouses in the Netherlands.

He said the Hotan trial also consumed a quarter of the energy that a standard greenhouse in the Netherlands consumes.

'After future integration with new energy sources, mechanization and smart technology, construction and operating costs will decrease significantly. These greenhouses will be strongly competitive ,' he said.

New farming methods are being tested more frequently in the Xinjiang region as Beijing seeks to expand food production in more areas.

In October 2023, researchers announced a large test field on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert growing a salt-tolerant rice variety that is much more productive than salt-tolerant rice grown elsewhere.

Just two months earlier, the media also reported on a technological breakthrough in aquaculture in the region, with freshwater fish, tiger prawns, abalone and lobsters raised in local fisheries.

In Xinjiang, cotton usually accounts for the majority of agricultural output, so rice is rarely grown due to water shortage conditions. This area mainly grows food crops such as wheat and corn.