Soybean output in China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, the country's leading soybean producer, is estimated at record 7.65 million tons this year, according to local agronomists.

Soybean acreage has reached about 3.4 million hectares this year, the highest in 30 years, noted the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Heilongjiang boasts one third of both national total soybean sown acreage and output.

Soybean agro-experts with the academy attributed this year's rosy soybean output prospects to a number of factors, including substantial measures taken by central and provincial governments to support soybean production, rising market prices for the crop, per-hectare soybean output increases thanks to application of new technologies, as well as farmers' growing enthusiasm for growing soybean.

Heilongjiang province launched a three-year scheme of rejuvenating soybean production in 2002, which produced a positiveoutcome, with marked improvement in quality, and increased output and sown acreage, said the agronomists.

Source: Xinhua