Kenli district in Dongying city, Shandong province, is located on the Yellow River Delta - enjoying abundant sunshine and a pleasant climate.

However, the district has not been a productive area for crops, because its soil has a high level of salinity as a result of coastal erosion and saltwater saturation.

Now, this situation is changing thanks to efforts by agricultural workers to comprehensively use the salt-affected soil.

Gou Qinzhi, a farmer in Hainan village, Kenli, and three other farmers planted soybeans for the first time last year. To Guo's surprise, they produced a bumper harvest on 66 hectares of land, with the average yield per mu (0.067 hectares) surpassing 300 kilograms. This brought Guo a better income compared with growing rice.

"It was once common knowledge that our land, which is salt-affected, was not suitable for growing soybeans," Gou said, adding that local farmers tried many methods to grow such crops on the land, but they all yielded low harvests.

"We have now chosen the right variety of soybeans to grow," Gou said, attributing the bumper harvest to these seeds.

Gou chose the Qihuang 34 variety developed by an agricultural team led by Xu Ran, a researcher at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Xu, 55, has cultivated soybean varieties for more than three decades, spending 10 years producing the Qihuang 34 variety, which can be grown on soil with a relatively low level of salinity, and on ordinary soil.

"A soybean variety is typically resistant to one to three diseases, but Qihuang 34 is resistant to six diseases, making it more productive," Xu said.

In addition, Qihuang 34 soybeans contain a higher level of nutrition than other varieties.

Xu said the protein content of a Qihuang 34 soybean is 45.13 percent and the fat content 22.48 percent.

Many farmers in Kenli have benefited from growing such soybeans.

Zhang Huabin, deputy general manager of Shandong Huibang Bohai Agricultural Development Co, said: "Qihuang 34 soybeans are well recognized by processing companies. Every metric ton of these beans brings us additional income of 200 yuan ($28) compared with other varieties."

This year in Kenli, the company has planted 733 hectares with Qihuang 34 soybeans on land with a low level of salinity.

Xu and his team are working to cultivate varieties that perform well in soil with a high level of salinity. During trials this year, they have planted soybeans on four areas of such land in Dongying.

"There is a serious shortage of soybean seeds that can be grown in salt-affected soil. We need to do more to build a complete technical system to better cultivate seeds for land with a high salt content," Xu said.