Can the scene of soybean fields covering Northeast China be restored?
This year Heilongjiang substantially raised the 2015 soybean target price subsidy to 130.87 yuan per mu, more than double the 60.5 yuan per mu subsidy in 2014. The strength of the subsidy exceeded the expectations of many farmers. At present, the subsidy funds are being distributed to farmers one after another. After receiving the subsidy, can farmers restore their confidence in growing soybeans? Can the scene of soybean and sorghum fields covering Northeast China be restored? The reporter conducted a survey on this.
Price subsidies put into practice
Lyu Zichun, a farmer from Sandaolinzi Village, Jianshanzi Township, Baoqing County, Heilongjiang, who had just received the soybean planting subsidy, was truly somewhat happy. In 2014 the subsidy was small, and growing soybeans barely made money. In 2015 he planted 200 mu of soybeans, and including the subsidy, his net income was about 130 yuan per mu. This year he planted 500 mu of soybeans and 300 mu of corn, hoping for another good harvest.
Now farmers look at both the market and policy when farming, and changes in agricultural policy directly affect farmers' choices about what to plant. Lyu Zichun said that 5 years ago growing soybeans was fairly profitable, so he chose to grow soybeans. Later, as the temporary corn storage price rose continuously for many years, the income gap between soybeans and corn grew wider and wider, so he continuously expanded the corn planting area and reduced the soybean planting area. This year the state abolished the temporary corn storage policy, corn prices fell, and at the same time gradually raised the soybean subsidy level, so he expanded the soybean planting area and reduced the corn planting area. In the past two years the soybean subsidy policy was issued too late. He hopes that the previous year's subsidy policy can be announced before spring planting each year, which would help farmers choose what to plant according to the subsidy level.
Now land transfer is very common, and the soybean subsidy has become very important to both land lessees and land lessors. It is understood that the targets of the Heilongjiang soybean subsidy are the actual growers of the legally actual soybean planting area, including farmers and enterprises and institutions. When land lessees sign land contracting contracts with land lessors, they specifically agree on how the soybean target price subsidy will be distributed.
Shao Renjie, chairman of the Renjie Planting Cooperative in Jinshi Village, Changjiang Township, Nenjiang County, has already recovered from the land lessor the portion of the soybean subsidy belonging to the cooperative. Last year, when the cooperative signed land contracting contracts with farmers, it was agreed that the soybean subsidy would be split equally, because drought sharply reduced soybean output, with soybean yield per shang falling from nearly 5,000 jin previously to 3,600 jin, and over the year the cooperative lost more than 600,000 yuan. Now that the soybean subsidy has risen to 130.87 yuan per mu, the cooperative received half of the subsidy, and the loss dropped to 200,000 yuan. This year, when the cooperative signed land contracting contracts with farmers, it agreed anew that if the soybean subsidy per shang is less than 1,000 yuan, the entire subsidy goes to the cooperative, and if the subsidy is higher than 1,000 yuan, it is split equally. He hopes the soybean subsidy will follow the principle of "whoever plants receives the subsidy," as this would help stimulate farmers' enthusiasm for growing soybeans.
Whether the subsidy can be fully put into practice is also a issue of great concern to farmers. During interviews, the reporter found that a few grassroots officials did not earnestly implement the subsidy policy and concealed planting areas, causing some farmers to be unable to receive reasonable subsidies. Farmers hope relevant departments will strengthen supervision and ensure that subsidies are truly put into practice.
Enhancing the competitiveness of domestically produced soybeans
The modern agricultural machinery cooperative in Chang'an Village, Haibei Township, Hailun City, Heilongjiang, has more than 30,000 mu of cultivated land, and this year all of it was planted with soybeans out of the need for crop rotation. Chairman Du Zhentao said that the 2015 soybean target price subsidy was strong, and he hopes this subsidy level can be maintained in 2016.
Hailun City is a famous hometown of high-quality soybeans. In recent years, as the income gap between soybean and corn cultivation widened, the soybean planting area shrank year by year. Last year the soybean planting area once fell to 1.706 million mu. This year Hailun City proposed a soybean revival plan, and the soybean planting area recovered to 2.2 million to 2.25 million mu.
Guo Changsheng, a principal staff member of the Hailun City Agriculture Bureau, believes that the primary reason for the increase in Hailun City's soybean planting area is that the state promoted agricultural supply-side structural reform, abolished the temporary corn storage policy, increased soybean subsidy strength, encouraged soybean-corn rotation, and stimulated farmers' enthusiasm for growing soybeans. In order to revive the soybean industry, Hailun City optimized the soybean planting structure, reducing soybean planting varieties from 20 to 3 superior varieties, mainly planting high-oil soybeans, high-protein soybeans and bean sprouts soybeans; developed the soybean deep-processing industry, extended the industrial chain, and drove the construction of high-quality soybean production bases; integrated warehousing, logistics and spot trading systems, built e-commerce platforms, and sold high-quality soybeans across the country; and developed small and micro bean product processing enterprises to drive the development of the local bean products industry. Hailun City plans to keep the soybean planting area above 2 million mu year-round in the future.
The recovery of the planting area is conducive to enhancing the competitiveness of domestically produced soybeans and promoting the optimization of the planting structure. This year the Ministry of Agriculture issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Soybean Production Development," proposing to strive to reach a soybean area of 140 million mu by 2020, an increase of 40 million mu over 2015. Heilongjiang is one of China's important main soybean production areas, with soybean output accounting for about one-third of the country's total. In recent years the soybean planting area once fell to about 36 million mu. Since Heilongjiang implemented the soybean target price subsidy policy in 2014, the soybean planting area has stopped falling and rebounded, and this year the soybean planting area has recovered to about 42 million mu.
Tang Qijun, chairman of the Heilongjiang Soybean Association, said that the substantial increase in the soybean subsidy has offset the losses caused by price declines and will help the soybean planting area achieve recovery growth.
Restoring confidence still takes time
To revive soybean production, the most important thing is to restore soybean farmers' confidence. The reporter learned that although after the implementation of the target price subsidy soybean farmers' income has improved somewhat and the soybean planting area has recovered somewhat, many farmers still lack confidence in resuming soybean cultivation.
The low comparative benefit of soybeans is the fundamental factor affecting farmers' confidence. Li Hongjun, chairman of the crop planting cooperative in Chengzi Village, Shiren Township, Hulan District, Harbin City, has not planted soybeans for two consecutive years. He planted soybeans in earlier years, and at first the returns were fairly good. Starting in 2011, as corn prices rose, land rents also rose, and the comparative benefit of soybeans became lower and lower, even resulting in losses. Considering that non-GMO soybean oil has a market, he thought about processing non-GMO soybean oil, but the soybean cake market was poor, and in the end nothing came of it. Starting last year he completely gave up soybeans and switched to planting corn and potatoes. Now the state is promoting potato as a staple food, and when the potato market is good, planting income can reach about 2,000 yuan per mu. He told the reporter that many farmers around him, like him, abandoned soybean cultivation because of comparative benefit.
Restoring soybean farmers' confidence requires not only a sustained and stable soybean subsidy policy, but also other supporting policies. Although Shao Renjie switched entirely to soybeans this year, he is not fully confident about the returns. Since their cooperative was established in 2013, it has not enjoyed much support policy, and operations are very difficult. They want to buy large combine harvesters to expand production, but suffer from a lack of funds and cannot get loans. He hopes the local government can also give cooperatives more support policies and provide more convenience for farmers to obtain loans.
Tang Qijun believes that even after the substantial increase in the soybean subsidy, the returns are still lower than those of corn, which is not conducive to the recovery of the soybean planting area. In the future, it will still be necessary to increase soybean returns and narrow the income gap by raising soybean yield per unit area. From the current perspective, the state should continue to increase soybean subsidy strength. At the same time, land rent accounts for more than 60% of planting costs. If the state can consider appropriately providing a certain land rent subsidy to reduce the cost of renting land, it can effectively guide farmers to switch to planting soybeans.