China's renowned professor known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice," Yuan Longping, is now dedicated to the cultivation of a new hybrid soybean, aiming to relieve the pressure from the domestic soybean, which faces threats from the US competitors.

"It's hopeful for us to cultivate a kind of hybrid soybean with an output of 700-800 jin (one jin equals to 1-1.5 kilograms) per mu (one mu equals one-fifteenth of a hectare)," Yuan said in an interview with Nanfang Daily on June 20.

The academic's research comes at a time when the domestic soybean industry is pounded by its overseas counterparts, which hold the edge in both quantity and quality. Chinese farmers are poorly motivated and operations at many soybean-featured enterprises are at a standstill.

"It's no way for traditional soybean to beat the transgenic ones, and now the country's consumption of soybean relies heavily on imports, which account for about two-thirds. The situation is very serious," Yuan said.

He also revealed that the central government attaches great importance to the strategic security of agricultural products. And China has started the hybrid soybean project.