China counting on saltwater rice in its One Belt, One Road aspirations

han 40 years, Yuan Longping has been lauded as the “father of hybrid rice,” a man whose work made rice fields more plentiful, helping to ease hunger across China.

And now at 88, one of China’s most celebrated scientists finds himself back in the spotlight, this time for another marvel of science: breeding a kind of rice that can produce high yields in salty waters. It’s an innovation that has once again made him a unique figure in China, a scientist endowed with political usefulness, even as an octogenarian.

Indeed, China’s modern-day leadership has rediscovered his value as it uses “rice diplomacy” both to further its ambitious international goals and ease its domestic food needs. Mr. Yuan has met with President Xi Jinping five times. And saltwater rice is emerging as a novel element in China’s sweeping One Belt, One Road initiative, which aims to dramatically extend the reach of Chinese companies and capital by building new networks of roads, rail lines and power plants.

The rice is a genetic advance that promises to transform vast areas of uncultivable land into productive fields.

Belt and Road funds have already been used to build an experimental plot in a desert on the outskirts of Dubai. Chinese state media called it a “national gift,” saying Mr. “Yuan’s research team always adhered to the spirit of the Belt and Road initiative.”

Planning is already under way for additional saltwater rice tests in Southeast Asia, Africa and other parts of the Middle East. “We plan to promote it in many countries starting in 2019,” says Zhang Guodong, executive vice-director of the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Centre, which has led testing of the saltwater rice.

He likens Chinese agricultural technology to the country’s road-and-rail-building savvy in developing regions.

“To develop local infrastructure, these countries will surely need more investment, and Chinese businesses as a result will get further investment opportunities,” he says. “And we all know that under the One Belt, One Road strategy, promoting China’s technology and products abroad to help One Belt, One Road countries is among the top priorities."

In some ways, it’s a revival of a longstanding Chinese practice. In the mid-1990s, a Chinese firm built a 5,000-hectare rice farm in Cuba that appeared to prepare the ground “for a much larger [US]$150-million hotel investment in the country and a Cuban-themed hotel in Shanghai,” wrote Elizabeth Gooch and Fred Gale in China’s Foreign Agriculture Investments, a recent publication of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Indeed, “China uses its technical prowess in rice as a goodwill-building tool overseas.”

Scientists have long sought ways to grow rice in salty areas, but the Chinese effort began in earnest in 2012, when scientists working for the Qingdao centre, co-founded by Mr. Yuan, began gathering more than 100 samples of rice capable of growing in saline conditions. Such naturally occurring breeds typically produce too little rice to be commercially viable.