Origin Agritech today announced that the company has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Longhan Investment Management Co., Ltd. pursuant to which both companies will work together to start the commercialization of Integrated Saline-Alkaline Land Reclamation (ISALR) technology in 2019, both in China and globally, and will integrate Longhan’s technologies with Origin’s seed technologies and agricultural business platform.
Longhan is an investment management company and operating platform that focuses on government-supported major projects in agricultural development and food security. With the Belt and Road initiative of the Chinese government, Longhan has developed and demonstrated its molecular biology technologies for seed treatment and soil treatment. Longhan has successfully tested its technologies on cotton in The Republic of Uzbekistan and on various crops, including corn, soybean, cotton, rice and vegetables, across several Chinese provinces with different degrees of saline-alkaline soil. The yield improvement for different crops ranges from 10-15 percent in medium level saline-alkaline land and over 15 percent for heavy saline-alkaline soil.
China has about 1.5 billion mu (100 million hectare) of saline-alkaline lands, while globally there is about 15 billion mu (1 billion hectare). Reclamation of these lands has become more and more critical to address the growing food demand in China and around the world. The escalation of the current U.S.-China trade dispute has intensified the Chinese government’s attention towards food security. The technologies for expanding plantable acreage through the reclamation of saline-alkaline lands are now well supported by the Chinese government. China currently imports overs 80 percent of the nation’s soybean demands. The ISALR technology will significantly increase the plantable acreage for corn and soybean and could thus dramatically alleviate China’s dependence on imported soybeans.
“We are impressed by Longhan’s technologies for seed and soil treatment and their initiative to work with the Chinese government to develop large reclamation projects for saline and alkaline soil. The strategic direction set out by Longhan complements well with Origin’s seed biotechnology and seed breading technology,” says Gengchen Han, executive chairman of Origin Agritech.
Furthermore, large land reclamation projects will generate significant agricultural input demands, including seeds, fertilizer and agricultural chemicals, which could be better served with Origin’s supply chain established by the Origin e-Commune Network announced previously.
“We’re very pleased to work with Origin Agritech, one of the premier brands for the agricultural industry in China. Origin’s strong seed technologies and its commercial experience could jump-start our commercialization initiative for our state-of-art molecular biology technologies. We look forward to our joint program and believe that we could see financial returns even at the onset of this cooperation in 2019, especially with the support of the Chinese government,” says Shuangcheng Zhou, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Longhan.
