Vigorous implementation of soybean and oilseed capacity enhancement project this year

On February 22, the No.1 document of the Central Government for 2022 was released. The document proposes that this year China will vigorously implement soybean and oilseed capacity enhancement projects, and will make good use of the two domestic and international markets and two kinds of resources in the future, so that the "oil bottle" contains as much Chinese oil as possible.

This year's Central Document No. 1 proposed to increase arable land rotation subsidies and incentives for large oil-producing counties, focus support on suitable areas, key varieties, business service entities, promote corn-soybean strip compound planting in the Yellow Huaihai, northwest and southwest regions, carry out grain-soybean rotation in the northeast, promote water to drought, rice to bean pilot in some groundwater over-exploitation areas in Heilongjiang Province and cold well irrigated rice areas, develop winter idle fields in the Yangtze River basin Expand oilseed rape and peanut production in Xinjiang's sub-optimal cotton areas. Carry out demonstrations of soybean cultivation on saline lands. Support the expansion of oil tea plantations and the renovation and upgrading of low-yield forests.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2021, China will sow 126 million mu of soybeans, 22 million mu less than in 2020, a decline of 14.8%, mainly due to farmers' weakened willingness to plant due to the low returns from soybeans compared to corn.

In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released the "14th Five-Year Plan" for the development of the national planting industry, proposing that by 2025, the soybean sown area should reach about 160 million mu and the production should reach about 23 million tons to promote the self-sufficiency rate of soybean.

Soybeans, known to the ancients as "beans" and one of the five grains, are an authentic Chinese product, and China is the only country of origin for soybeans, which have been cultivated for nearly 5,000 years. Why is the issue of yield now so urgent? Why are soybeans and corn "competing" for land? Let's listen to the answer from Wang Shoucong, a deputy to the National People's Congress.

Wang Shoucong, a deputy to the National People's Congress, said that soybeans affect food security from the entire industrial chain, so we must do everything possible to expand soybeans and increase their production capacity, and more importantly, to stabilise food and expand beans.