Scientists Develop Salt-Resistant Soybean Plant That Could End China’s Dependency on Imports

Researchers at China’s Crop Research Institute in Shandong say they have invented a new species of soybean that could slow deforestation of the Amazon and make China self-sufficient in soybean consumption.

Soil salinity poses a major problem for many of China's staple crops, including soybeans, and overcoming that problem could open up vast new areas of the country for cultivation. However, thanks to efforts by the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Jinan, that might soon be possible.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the team has invented a salt-tolerant form of soybean plant after decades of research. When planted in saline-alkali soil, the new soybean variety yields more than twice the average crop per hectare. That could make it possible to expand the cultivation of soybeans into areas like Xinjiang, where the arid climate and soil salinity have made agriculture a challenge. It would also open up the traditional areas of China, where soybeans have been cultivated for more than 5,000 years, for other crops like corn.

“Long hours of sunshine, low relative humidity and large temperature differences between day and night make Xinjiang an ideal place to cultivate the crop,” Zhan Yong, a researcher with the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Reclamation Science, told the SCMP. A study by the scholar published in 2020 found that Xinjiang soybean crops produced higher-than-average yields compared to other Chinese growing regions.

According to the researchers, growing soybeans in Xinjiang could allow China to produce five times as much soybean products as it imports, which comes mainly from countries like Brazil, where farmland is steadily encroaching upon the Amazon rainforest. Reducing demand from Brazilian farmers could reduce the destruction of the region, too, which imperils one of the great “carbon sinks” of the world that help slow global warming.

Soybeans aren’t the only salt-tolerant crop being developed in China, either: rice, a daily diet staple in the region, is also being adapted. One estimate suggested that cultivating the new, salt-resistant variety could provide enough rice for 200 million people, or nearly the population of mainland Southeast Asia.