The fast-growing rice planted inside greenhouses in desert for the first time in Hotan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was reaped on Friday, marking the success of the project.
It took the researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) only two months from planting to reaping the rice.
"What we adopted is the rapid-breeding technique, in which we spent 15 days in cultivating rice seedlings. We transplanted the rice seedlings in these soilless tanks in February, and by now, the whole growth cycle is 60 days," said Wang Sen, a researcher of the Institute of Urban Agriculture under the CAAS.
Under normal conditions, the average growth cycle of rice in China is about 120 to 150 days.
But the fast-growing technique invented by Yang Qichang, principal investigator of the Institute of Urban Agriculture has shortened the growth cycle by half.
In 2021, Yang led his research team in successfully shortening the growth cycle of rice by half at a plant factory in southwest China's Sichuan Province after five years of research.
"Under the conditions of our plant factory, we could completely control the temperature, humidity, light, carbon dioxide and nutrition around the rice roots. That means we could completely control its environment. However, in the environment of the plant factory, the costs of energy, operation and construction are rather high. That's why we want to utilize the greenhouse conditions in desert, because the light and heat resources are ideal in desert greenhouses," said Yang.
Now that the growth cycle of rice is shortened by half, Yang's team is exploring fast-breeding and growing technologies for soybeans, corn and wheat, as well as rapeseed, cotton and alfalfa in desert greenhouses in Hotan.
Researchers cultivate fast-growing rice in Xinjiang desert
