(Yicai Global) Dec. 8 -- China, the world’s largest soybean consumer, will continue to look at ways to reduce its dependency on imports after the country’s planting area of the crop shriveled 14.8 percent this year from last year.

The country sowed 8,400,000 hectares of soybeans in 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Dec. 6.

Farmers are more willing to grow corn than soybeans as the price of corn has shot up greatly this year, said Wang Minghua, deputy director of the NBS’ Department of Rural Surveys.

Growing corn has a much higher output than soybeans, Li Shichen, a farmer in northeastern Heilongjiang province, told Yicai Global. One hectare of land can yield around 7,500 kilograms of corn versus 2,250 kg of soybeans.

Corns and soybeans are supposed to be planted in rotation, but some farmers have grown soybeans for four to five years in a row, thus the soil is less fertile and yields have fallen, Li said.

Soybeans, though, are a less risky crop to grow than corn as it requires less investment and subsidies are higher, Li said. Planting corn can be less profitable than soybeans as poor corn strains and natural disasters can affect the harvest not to mention high harvesting costs.

China is the world’s largest importer of soybeans, which are an important component of animal feed and cooking oil. Over 83 percent of the country’s soybeans were imported last year, amounting to 100 million tons, compared with one million tons in 1995. As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs is looking to revitalize the country’s soybean sector to guarantee food security.

Editor: Kim Taylor