BEIJING, CHINA — China’s soybean production increased 13% to 18.1 million tonnes in 2019, according to official data released on Dec. 6, Reuters reported.

Planted area increased 11% after the government started offering generous subsidies to farmers. Locally grown soybeans are mainly used in food, but are still far less than China’s soybean imports.

In the first 10 months of the year, the nation imported 70.69 million tonnes of soybeans, Reuters said.

Total food crop production for 2019 was up 0.9% to 664 million tonnes.

The government is also trying to promote higher value cash crops like rapeseed, peanuts and vegetables, while reducing planting of corn, wheat and rice due to surplus, the news agency reported.

The corn planted area fell 2%, but output increased by 1.4% to 260.77 million tonnes. Wheat output rose 1.6% to 133.59 million tonnes. Rice output fell by 1.2% over the previous year due to a reduction in planting of low-quality and low-efficiency early rice, with many areas moving to planting just one crop per year, Reuters said.