BEIJING: China’s Inner Mongolia region, the country’s second-largest soybean growing area, will expand planting of the oilseed by 287,000 hectares in 2022, state media reported on Monday.

The northern region, located in the country’s grain basket, said it would expand soybean acreage through crop rotation programmes and increase subsidy differences between soybean and corn to encourage farmers to grow more of the oilseed, Xinhua news agency reported.

The plan came after China’s top leadership called for expansion of soybeans nationwide in the new year and set it as a political priority. Planting acreage of soybeans in Inner Mongolia in 2021 was about 1.15 million hectares, 13.7% of the country’s total planting acreage of 8.4 million hectares.