“Soybean priceshavecontinued
to risesincelast year, andwith the
subsidies, profits from growing soy-
beans arenowhigher than from
growing corn,” Sun said. “Of all 600
households in thevillage, morethan
500 haveincreased soybean plant-
ing.”
Last year,with subsidies from the
local government included, Sun said
heearned about 5,000 yuan foreach
hectareof soybean crops compared
with 1,500 yuan foreach hectareof
corn.
“Soybeans grownhereinHailun
arehigh-quality and sellwell, and
most of thoseIharvest go to big food
processing factoriesnearby,” hesaid.
“Ican sell thesoybeans for about 4
yuan a kilogram, comparedwith 3.
yuan last year.”
AlthoughSunwantedtorentmore
land from farmers in nearby villages
toexpand his soybean harvest this
year,manyofthemwereunwilling
to do so, or had increasedtheir rents,
so Sun said hegaveup.
InHailun, a national pilot area
for high-efficie y production ofnc
green and high-quality soybeans,
morethan 133,000 hectaresof
farmland havebeen plantedwith
thecrop since2000, according to
YangDayong, director of theGreen
FoodDevelopment Office,which is
responsibleto thecity’s agricultural
and rural affairs bureau.
With higher profits from soybean
farming and policiestoencourage
thegrowth of such crops adoptedby
thelocal government, theamount
of land used for soybean planting in
thecity isexpected to riseto 193,
hectares this year,ayear-on-year
expansion of 45 percent, accounting
for morethan half thefarmland in
Hailun.
Thecitywill also try to takemore
measurestohelp farmers improve
soybean productivity and quality,
including introducing superior spe-
cies and promoting newfertilizing
technologies, toenablethecrop to
play a moreimportant rolein the
localeconomy, Yang said.
Soybean planting has increased
nationwidethis year, following a
national plan proposedbythecen-
tral governmentto rejuvenatepro-
duction of thecrop.
Thetotal area of farmland planted
with soybeans this year mayexceed
8.6 million hectares, a year-on-year
riseof morethan 667,000 hectares,
whichwould bethefourth consecu-
tiveyear of growth, according to Pan
Wenbo, planting administration
head at theMinistry ofAgriculture
and RuralAffairs.
This year, thecentral govern-
ment has provided moresupport to
encouragesoybean planting, includ-
ing continuing to providesubsidies
tofarmers in thenortheast, a major
production area for thecrop, pro-
moting rotation farming of corn and
soybeans, and increasing financial
support for major soybean produc-
tion counties, Pan said.
According to a plan releasedby
theministryearlier this year to
increasedomestic soybean produc-
tion, authoritieswill introducemore
policiestoencourageplanting of
thecrop. Thepolicieswill include
increasing subsidies to farmers and
developingnewsoybeanspeciesover
thenextfewyears to raisedomestic
production.
According to theplan, theamount
of land used for growing soybeans is
expected to riseto 9.3 million hect-
aresbytheend of next year and to
10 million hectares by 2022,with
per-hectareproduction and quality
also being boosted.
With consumption of soybeans in
recent years increasing for their pro-
tein andedibleoil, thegap between
supply and demand has beenwid-
e ning, resulting inChina relying on
imports,with morethan 80 percentof such producecoming from coun-
tries such asBrazil and theUnited
States.
In comparison,China is almost
self-sufficient in rice,wheat and corn
—thenation’s threemajor crops —
with domestic production meet-
ingmorethan 98 percentoftotal
demand.
Last year,China’s soybean imports
reached88millionmetrictons,more
than twicethelevel in 2009, but a
d eclineofabout 8 percent compared
with theprevious year — thefirst
fall since2011 — dueto outbreaks of
African swinefever.
This ledtodeclining demand
for soybean meal, a major byprod-
uct used for pig feed, alongwith a
slump in imports from theUS due
to increased tariffs on soybeans
imposedbyBeijing, according to the
GeneralAdministration ofCustoms.
Imports fromBrazilexceeded
million tons last year, accounting
for 75 percent of thetotal, followed
bythosefrom theUS,which fell by
morethan 16 million tons, a drop ofabout 50 percent year-on-year.
Amid rising domestic production,
soybean imports havecontinuedto
fall this year.Atotal of 31.7 million
tonswereimportedinthefirst five
months, a year-on-year fall of 12.
percent, according to theministry.
Imports from theUS fell year-on-
year by 70.6 percent in thefirst four
months to 4.3 million tons, themin-
istry said.
Yin Ruifeng,ahead soybean ana-
lyst at theministry, said soybean
planting increasednationwidesince
thestart of this year, following the
releaseof thegovernment’s rejuve-
nation plan.
“Theincreased planting by farm-
ers in recent years has largely been
driven by subsidy policies, rather
thanincreasedprofit,” shesaid.
Inadditiontothenortheast,
authoritieshavestarted to pilot
subsidiesinother soybean produc-
tion areas, such as somecountiesin
Henan province, Yin said.
Compared withcorn,which is also
widely growninthenortheast, soy-
bean output is less perhectareand
profits arelower, shesaid.
“Farmerswill calculatethetotal
profit from planting soybeans, tak-
ing into consideration government
subsidies. Theywill start to grow
moresoybeans if theycanearn more
than from growing corn.”
JiHongkun, deputy director of the
AgricultureandRuralAffairsBureau
inWudalianchi,Heilongjiang, said
that despitethesubsidiesprovided
by thecentral and provincial govern-
ments, thecity has also subsidized
soybean farmers in recent years.
Lastyear,per-hectaresoybeanpro-
duction in thecitywas 2.3 tons, com-
paredwithnearly10tonsperhectare
for corn, hesaid.But soybean farm-ers receivedsubsidiesof4,800yuan
ahectare,morethan 12 timesthose
for corn farmers. Sowhen subsidies
areincluded, soyb eanfarmers make
moreprofit,Jiadded.
Of thecity’s 400,000 hectaresof
farmland, nearly 70 percent is devot-
ed to soybean crops, all of them non-
genetically-modified products, he
said.
Yin said soybean imports haveris-
en quickly over many years because
of rapidly increasing demand for
edibleoil and pig feed.
“Decades ago, porkwas precious
for manyChinese, but nowtheyeata
lotofit.Wecould only producemore
feed by increasing imports,” shesaid.
Comparedwithdomestically pro-
ducedsoybeans,whichhavea higher
proteincontent butloweryield,most
imports aregenetically modified
productswith a much higheryield
and aremoresuitableforextracting
oil, Yin said.
“All domestically produced soy-
beans arenon-GMproducts, asGM
soybeanshavenotyetbeenapproved
inChina,which means their produc-
tion is morecostly than imported
GMsoybeans,w hichareresistant to
disease,” shesaid.
“Comparedwith other crops, the
soybean yield is lowand moreland
is needed,which is relatively scarce
inChina.Ifthecountrywants to be
self-sufficientinsoybeanproduction,
theoutput of major crops such as
riceandwheat must fall.”
Yin said relying on soybean
imports to meet most of thedomes-
tic demand is thebest solution for
China toensurefood security, add-
ing that thegap be tweendomestic
production and total demand,which
exceeds 80 percent, is unlikely to be
bridged anytimesoon.
According to theministry,while
continuing toencourageinterna-
tional tradein soybeans,China is
also makingefforts to diversify its
imports of thecrop.It has increased
imports from countriessuchas
Argentina to minimizerisks from
turmoil in international relations.
ZhouTianyong,aneconomicspro-
fessor at theUniversity of Science
and TechnologyBeijing, said it is not
practical to rejuvenatedome soy-stic
bean production solely through the
provision of subsidies,which require
heavy government investment.
Hesaid moreefforts should be
madeto improveproductivity —
so that fewerfarmers can produce
moresoybeans—toreducecostsand
increasedomestic competitiveness.
Meanwhile,hesuggested that
authorities could consider using
moreuncultivated land, including
desert and grassland, toenableit to
beused for soybe production.anContactthewritersat
[email protected]Domesticproductionrises,importsofthecommodityfall
SOYBEANS:
>>FROMPAGE
Afarmer uses a machine to plant soybeans inBozhou,Anhui
province.LIUQINLI/FORCHINADAILYSoybeans are harvested in Heilongjiang province.LUWENXIANG/XINHUACHINADAILY GLOBAL WEEKLY August 9-15, 2019 COVERSTORY 3