大豆振興計劃 (dàdòu zhènxīng jìhuà): Plan to rejuvenate soybean farming

Agriculture, rural communities and the welfare of farmers are once again the topics of China's No 1 Central Document. This year's first policy document, jointly released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Tuesday, vows to make "marked progress" in agriculture by 2020 to ensure society becomes moderately prosperous.

It stresses that taking the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy as the overall starting point, the hard tasks must be completed to improve the livelihoods of farmers and guarantee a stable supply of green and high-quality agricultural products.

For this purpose, China will follow its "redline" system and guarantee that land dedicated to farming never shrinks to less than 120 million hectares.

Policies and technological support will also help to protect resources and raise efficiency, preventing resources from over-exploitation.

New national standards on food safety will be prioritized and standards on pesticide residues and veterinary drugs are to reach international standards by 2020.

China's soybean import dependency is comparatively high. Media reported that in 2018 China's soybean import volume has reached 88.03 million tons, which is far more than domestic soybean output.

To reduce China's dependence on imported soybeans, a plan has been drawn up for increased soybean planting in the traditional soybean growing areas of Heilongjiang, Anhui and Henan provinces.

The government will introduce relevant support policies to guide production, including increasing the subsidies for growing soybeans, and reducing the planting area and subsidies for corn.

The soybean rejuvenation plan, which aims to expand domestic soybean planting, expects to increase China's soybean planting area to 140 million mu (9.33 million hectares) and increase China's soybean self-sufficiency rate by 1 percentage point by 2020.