The research team has learned how to raise the yields of grain and oil crops planted on mildly saline soil. In such conditions, salt-tolerant forage crops, such as alfalfa, can be planted to aid animal husbandry processes.

"There is no need to grow grain on severely saline soil at high cost. Instead, we can grow some local plants, such as sword-leaf dogbane, which can be used as a source of medicines," Li said, adding that the active ingredients in the plants can be applied to cosmetics and health products.

Li Yiqiang, an official with the Tobacco Research Institute at CAAS, said their marine agriculture center has discovered tobacco plants with outstanding tolerance of saline.

Since the center was established in 2015 to study special plants' adaptation to saline-alkaline soils and the comprehensive use and improvement of such land, it has assessed the saline tolerance of nearly 100 plant species, including tobacco.

"It turns out that tobacco is one of the few plant species that can be cultivated in severely saline soil," Li Yiqiang said, adding that most varieties can tolerate soil with a salt content of about nine parts per 1,000.

This year, the center tried for the first time to conduct large-scale experiments of planting different varieties of tobacco on saline-alkaline land and also explored multiple uses of the crop.