The Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Dongying, Shandong province, is located in the Yellow River estuary, with wetland making up more than 70 percent of the total area. [Photo by Yang Bin/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Shandong province has been beefing up efforts to build the Yellow River Delta National Agricultural High-tech Industry Demonstration Zone into a new comprehensive utilization model of saline alkali land that can be replicated and popularized, so as to make contributions to the modernization of agricultural and rural areas in saline alkali areas.

The State Council approved the national agricultural high-tech zone in the Yellow River Delta in Dongying city in October 2015. The primary objectives for the zone are to increase independent innovation capacity and create a pilot demonstration region for comprehensive utilization of saline alkali land.

The Shandong provincial government recently launched a guideline to support the zone's high-quality development.

According to the guideline, Shandong plans to promote the construction of a number of scientific and technological innovation platforms such as the national center for the comprehensive utilization of saline alkali land, implement a number of major scientific and technological projects, gather a number of high-end scientific and educational resources, recruit a number of high-level talents, and quickly improve the project undertaking capacity and achievement transformation capacity of the national agricultural high-tech zone in the Yellow River Delta.

The zone is expected to speed up the cultivation and expansion of the characteristic industries of saline alkali land and contribute to Shandong's efforts in building a strong modern agricultural province.

Efforts are expected to be made to promote commercial breeding mechanism and build a characteristic seed industry chain integrating breeding, marketing and promotion.

The zone also plans to construct distinctive industrial parks in saline alkali terrain, and supportive measures are expected to be put in place to develop recognizable industrial clusters.

Shandong plans to assist the Belt and Road countries and regions' collaboration with the zone's agricultural science and technology exchanges, and the full usage of saline alkali soil will be the subject of conferences and exhibits on scientific and technological innovation.

High-end talent teams from home and abroad are encouraged to innovate and launch enterprises in the zone in order to open up new opportunities for Shandong's modern agriculture industry.