How was some saline land between Kaifeng and Zhengzhou turned into farmland?

Between 1954 and 1964, approximately one-fourth of the saline land located between Kaifeng and Zhengzhou was transformed into fertile farmland through various experimental efforts aimed at bringing alkaline soils into production. While these reclamation efforts have continued since that period, their success has been described as limited or short-lived.1

The region's soil salinity and alkalinity are largely consequences of the Huang He (Yellow River) bed lying above the surrounding land, which causes much of the low-lying area to become waterlogged.1