Twenty hectares of saline soil rice paddies have entered the harvest season at Bayiawati Township, Yopurga County of Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The saline soil rice, developed by the R&D team of Yuan Longping, the pioneer of hybrid rice, achieved a theoretical yield of 548.53 kg per mu (about 0.07 hectares). Ninety percent of the farmland in the county is affected by salinization and was deemed unsuitable for agricultural production. However, experts say the saline soil rice can improve soil and lower salinity, turning saline soil into fertile farmland.