China's largest soybean-producing province sets new records

A staff member performs quality testing on randomly-sampled soybeans at a grain trading company in Suihua of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Oct. 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

HARBIN, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Heilongjiang, China's largest soybean-producing province, set new records in 2022 in terms of soybean output and planting area, statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

Heilongjiang yielded 9.54 billion kilograms of soybeans this year, up 32.6 percent year on year and accounting for 47 percent of the country's total soybean output. The sown soybean area in the province hit 73.98 million mu (4.93 million hectares), up 26.9 percent year on year.

Liu Mingkun, head of the Yongsheng Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Jixian County, Heilongjiang, is filled with joy and excitement.

"This year, our cooperative planted more than 20,000 mu of soybeans, with an average yield per mu exceeding 200 kilograms," Liu said. "We have set a new record."

To ensure national food security, Heilongjiang has been increasing its soybean yield through a string of measures such as improving varieties and field management techniques.