Chinese scientists working to reduce the country’s reliance on imported grain are developing a substitute for soybeans in animal feed, the South China Morning Post reports. Soybeans are by far China’s biggest agricultural import from the US, and are now subject to an additional 10 percent tariff rate.
This alternative feed is a protein-rich corn. Huazhong Agricultural University researchers have reportedly developed several promising varieties already. The university’s president, Yan Jianbing, told media that a 1 percent improvement in the protein content of corn could reduce China’s demand for foreign soybeans by up to 8 million tonnes.
China primarily uses soybeans to feed its growing livestock industry, as well as poultry, and imported more than 105 million metric tons of the grain in 2024.
[See more: China now leads the world in semiconductor research, a new report says]
According to Yan, his team has developed a strain of corn with protein levels that are 2 percentage points higher than those of regular corn. He said that more than 667,000 hectares of the new crop had been planted already.
Food security is an increasingly urgent issue in China, due to rising geopolitical tensions – particularly with the US – and market uncertainties around the world. Beijing has prioritised maintaining self-sufficiency in staple grains like rice and wheat.
Replacing imported soybeans with domestically grown soybeans is not practical in China due to land constraints, Yan noted, making the new variety of high-protein corn all the more important.
