The Harbin Academy of Agricultural Sciences and China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Harbin, capital of China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, on July 23.
 
The two sides will cooperate on the development and utilization of saline-alkali land, as well as research and development of grain and economic crop varieties.
 
Harbin's Shuangcheng, Hulan and other districts and counties are home to nearly hundreds of thousands of mu of saline-alkali land, and the area of severe saline-alkali land in Heilongjiang province even exceeds 10 million mu (0.67 million hectares).
 
Improving saline-alkali land is an effective way to make use of waste and increase the supply of arable land.
 
In recent years, the Harbin Academy of Agricultural Sciences has been exploring how to improve saline-alkali land and selecting saline-alkali-tolerant crop varieties.
 
The Harbin academy is conducting experiments and R&D of salt-tolerant rice and soybean varieties, and has cooperated with the Daqing Agricultural and Rural Social Service Center on the "Saline-Alkali Land Improvement" project.
 
It is striving to improve the microbial flora of saline-alkali land and increase the content of soil organic matter by using the biotechnology of mixed fermentation of edible mushroom waste residue and animal manure.