Detail

China (Mainland)

Oilseeds, oils and meals

Soybeans

01/09/2017

Production

Agricultural policy

Set subsidy payments granted to soybean producers in Heilongjiang Province for the 2016/17 season at CNY 118.58 per mu (USD 267 per ha).

According to private sources, the subsidy granted to soybean producers in Heilongjiang Province (China’s top soybean growing region) has been set at CNY 118.58 per mu (USD 268 per ha) for the 2016/17 season, i.e. for the crop harvested in the fall of last year. The payment, which is part of the target price subsidy programme that was operated on a pilot basis from 2014 to 2016 (see MPPU Nov.’16 & June’17), is supposed to reach farmers by 15 September 2017. For comparison, in 2015/16, the subsidy amounted to CNY 150 per mu (USD 339 per hectare). From 2017/18, the target price system will be discontinued and producer payments will be de-coupled from market prices (see also MPPU July’17). Two types of producers will be eligible to receive payments: (i) farmers who rotate maize with other crops – primarily soybeans, but also tubers and minor grains, beans and other oilseeds; and (ii) farmers that keep land idle to rehabilitate degraded farmland and conserve moisture in marginal agricultural areas. Support payments are meant to ensure that farmer incomes will not suffer from idling land or rotating crops that earn lower returns. Reportedly, the compensation for idling land that could bear two crops a year will amount to CNY 800 per mu, whereas CNY 500 per mu will be granted for single-season fallow (respectively USD 1 810 and 1 132 per ha). Details on subsidy levels for crop rotation are not yet available.