Following the devastating tsunami which hit northern Japan in 2011 following a massive earthquake, a large area of land was covered by salt water, which deposited the salt behind, making it difficult for anything to grow. Scientists identified varieties of rice which were more tolerant of the salty soil and used those to develop a variety of rice which grows better in salty soil.
A story in SciDecNet focuses on an area of Tanzania near Mt. Kilimanjaro which has particularly salty soils and how farmers there can benefit from the new variety. However, it may also be something farmers in the Southeast may watch for, since higher sea levels and higher evaporation could both lead to saltier soils in the future which may need to be farmed using different varieties of crops than are currently grown. It may also allow farmers to use areas that are not currently suitable for cultivation.
You can read the story at SciDevNet here.
