Chinese researchers note the surprising results of their wheat production in the experimental project in the Taklamakan Desert, producing more than double what they expected.
This result occurred in Makit County on the southwestern edge of the Taklamakan Desert. The county is surrounded on three sides by sand, and has an annual precipitation of less than 100 millimeters, while evaporation exceeds 2,000 millimeters. They were experimenting with China’s first officially-designated salt-tolerant wheat variety, Jiangmai 189, developed by the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences.
The project has been ongoing for five years. The trial on a managed, heavily-saline plot produced a harvest of 768 kg per mu (about 11.5 tons per hectare or 10,278 lbs per acre) compared with the national average wheat yield of 399.2 kg per mu recorded last year.
