According to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), China will bolster its oilseed self-sufficiency by increasing soybean production to 23 million tonnes by 2025, from 16.4 million tonnes in 2021. CGTN visited northeast China's Liaoning Province, where more farmers are switching from corn to soybean.

Chen Shangjun, from Kazuo Mongolian autonomous county in Chaoyang City in western Liaoning, is a successful soybean grower. After planting 30 hectares of soybean last year, the 57-year-old celebrity farmer decided to double his production.

"Villagers often came to me and asked, 'why did you use so much land to plant soybeans? Can you make more money?' I explained to them that the government was offering more support and incentives for planting soybeans. Modern machinery also greatly helps increase crop yield," he said.

Officials say supply and demand for rice and wheat in China is relatively balanced and steady. But the biggest gap is in soybeans, as over 80 percent of domestic consumption relies on imports. 

Grain output in the three northeastern provinces – Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning – account for over 20 percent of the country's total. The structure of grain crops in the northeast tends to be dominated by corn, rice, and soybean. In Heilongjiang, soybean production accounts for over 40 percent of the national total.

The central government increased soybean subsidies and cut corn subsidies in 2018. In some provinces, the incentives can be nearly $700 per hectare higher than for corn. 

One agricultural expert cautioned, however, that it takes more than just cash incentives to bolster soybean production.

"In fact, smaller plots of lands are easier to manage and have more chances of a higher yield. But farms often have limited knowledge about planting soybeans, and the only way of maximizing the production capacity of machinery is by large-scale planting," said Wang Yuhua, the deputy chief of the agricultural center in Kazou.

In order to demonstrate how high soybean yield can be, the center picked a few large farms to take part in a project. They were offered full support from seed selection and sowing to fertilizer safety and control.

Bai Haifeng, a local farm manager, told CGTN, "We did the math before getting on board. Although corn is easier to grow and its price has increased slightly in the past few years, the added value of soybean is much higher. Together with the incentives offered for seeds and machinery, we are confident about this harvest season."