HOHHOT — North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region will allocate 248 million yuan (about $36.56 million) for a pilot project to treat saline-alkaline land this year, local authorities said on Sept 15.

According to the regional department of agriculture and animal husbandry, the pilot project will work on a total of 8,133 hectares of saline-alkaline land.

Inner Mongolia is home to more than 1 million hectares of saline-alkaline land, which accounts for 11.4 percent of the region's total cultivated land. The saline-alkaline land has become a problem affecting local agricultural production, the ecological environment, and economic and social development.

After the land is treated, the grain output in the pilot areas will increase by 15 percent to 20 percent by the end of 2022, said Wang Yufeng, the department's spokesperson.