Sand rice, a promising future crop for desert and marginal lands in northern China

Abstract

AbstractThe pioneer Amaranthaceae species sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum) is an annual psammophyte that is widely distributed in the deserts and sand fields of northern China. The well‐balanced nutritional values, long consumption history, and extreme stress tolerance of sand rice have fascinated scientists, prompting its development as a climate‐resilient crop. Sand rice has been successfully introduced and cultivated on sandy and loess lands over the past decade, while large‐scale artificial planting has been carried out in the Ulan Buh and Tengger deserts. However, the yield is far below the maximum potential, as estimated by the highest yield per plant ever found in the Tengger desert during our survey of wild populations. The current domestication of sand rice relies mainly on natural selection and mutagenesis breeding. A few elite lines with modified agronomic traits, such as compact architecture, high productivity, reduced trichomes, and short plant stature, have been developed from natural populations and a chemical mutagenesis library. Breeding new cultivars and broader cultivation of sand rice in deserts and marginal lands will stimulate economic growth and diversify the food supply, especially for the area west of the Hu Huanyong Line, thus contributing to environmental sustainability in northern China.