# China enlists AI in hunt for better soybeans, but self-sufficiency unlikely any time soon > Source: > Published: 2026-08-21 13:30:07+00:00 # China enlists AI in hunt for better soybeans, but self-sufficiency unlikely any time soon New platform is China’s latest effort to improve home-grown soybean varieties and reduce reliance on imports [Mandy Zuo](/author/mandy-zuo)in Shanghai Chinese agricultural scientists have launched a generative AI breeding platform for soybeans, which play a central role in China’s agricultural trade. The Fengshu 2.0 platform marked “a shift in China’s soybean breeding towards data-assisted breeding and precision decision-making”, Xinhua reported recently, contrasting it with traditional methods that relied on experience and a trial-and-error approach. The artificial intelligence platform, which is expected to optimise breeding plans by making the processing of research data more efficient, is China’s latest effort to improve home-grown soybean varieties as it seeks to reduce its reliance on imports. The past five years have seen Chinese scientists develop a batch of breakthrough high-yield, high-oil varieties of the seed plant to replace imports, which currently account for over 80 per cent of total consumption, according to official numbers, and are seen by Beijing as a vulnerability amid heightened geopolitical risks. [growing demand for meat](https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3296581/high-steaks-challenge-how-china-feeds-its-huge-meat-hungry-population?module=inline&pgtype=article)from the nation’s 1.4 billion people kept pushing up the consumption of soybean meal – a key animal feed. [seed industry revitalisation plan](https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3156141/china-food-security-beijing-signals-overhaul-gm-crop-rules?module=inline&pgtype=article)in 2021, the development of high-yield, high-oil soybean varieties had transitioned from “quantitative accumulation” to “qualitative breakthrough”, said Wang Wenshen, an analyst at bulk commodity consultancy Sublime China Information.