China is turning salt-damaged land along its coasts into farms, producing a high-value crop known as sea cordyceps, with many once-barren terrains now yielding harvests beneficial to farmers income, consumers’ health and environmental conservation.
China has about 1.5 billion mu (100 million hectares) of saline-alkali land, of which about 500 million mu is available for utilization. As China focuses on promoting agricultural modernization, localities across the country have been making great efforts to utilize saline-alkali land to increase the yield and boost farmer’ incomes.
Such soil is notoriously difficult to farm, typically producing low crop yields, but technological advances in agriculture mean that Chinese farmers are increasingly able to put it to good use.
A newly introduced high-value cash crop, sea cordyceps, is now being widely cultivated on wetlands in Yanfeng Town, Haikou City, the capital of southern China's island province of Hainan. Although the sea cordyceps looks like worms, it is actually a kind of nutrient-packed vegetable.
Few crops can survive in salt-affected soil, but such soil is fertile for sea cordyceps cultivation, with its seedlings, mature seedlings, seeds and straw all having high economic value.
"Because this is saline-alkali land, it is impossible to grow food crops. Its cost will be very high, while the harvest will be very small. However, sea cordyceps can grow in saline-alkali land. It thrives wherever saline-alkali soils exist, and it is a high-value crop," said Qian Guangyao, field farming manager of Hainan Haiyu Biotechnology Company.
This salt-tolerant crop can be irrigated with seawater, helping purify nutrient-rich discharge while producing blue carbon ecosystem benefits.
Sea cordyceps has great commercial value. Fresh sea cordyceps can be eaten raw as a cholesterol-lowering vegetable. It can also be processed into mineral-packed bio-salt through advanced extraction.
The crop is also used to produce tea, cosmetics, and supplements. Estimates suggest that an annual yield of this crop can reach up to 750,000 yuan (about 105,000 U.S. dollars) per hectare, transforming barren, salt-affected land into a source of both nutrition and income.
China promotes salt-tolerant crop cultivation to transform coastal wasteland into farms
China promotes salt-tolerant crop cultivation to transform coastal wasteland into farms
