QINGDAO -- A Chinese research team announced Monday that a saline-alkali tolerant rice experiment has achieved a success in desert areas of Dubai.

Yield tests showed that the highest output of saline-alkali tolerant rice in Dubai surpassed 7.8 tonnes per hectare, much higher than the world's average rice yield of 4.539, according to the saline-alkali tolerant rice research and development center in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province.

The research team from the center launched the project in Dubai in January, and more than 80 varieties of rice including saline-alkali tolerant rice were planted in experimental fields.

With this success, the research team and its Dubai partner plan to set up a 100-hectare experimental farm in Dubai in 2019, to further test the cultivation techniques of the saline-alkali tolerant rice.

From 2020, the planting area of saline-alkali tolerant rice will be expanded to cover more than 10 percent of Dubai's land area.