Soybean meal reduction substitution is of great significance for farmers to save costs, feed producers to save materials, industry-wide efficiency and national food security. It is necessary to make use of the achievements of modern animal nutrition, take the reduction and substitution of soybean meal as a breakthrough, fully tap agricultural resources, and improve the quality and efficiency of agriculture. To promote the reduction and substitution of soybean meal, we should not only change the traditional concept, but also bring it into the category of ecological product value compensation mechanism.

Since September, international soybean prices have fluctuated, and domestic soybean meal prices have risen again, reaching historical highs. Soybean meal prices are rising rapidly and supply and demand are tight, making soybean meal reduction and substitution a topic of concern in the feed breeding industry. Leading companies such as Wen's, Muyuan, and New Hope have actively explored.

From the perspective of consumption structure, soybean meal reduction substitution is conducive to ensuring national food security. In recent years, the consumption of food rations has reached a peak and showed a downward trend, while feed consumption has continued to increase. The most prominent contradiction of food security is manifested in feed grains. At the same time, with the improvement of the scale of breeding, the "rations" of livestock and poultry have also undergone great changes. Industrial feed consumption has increased at an average annual rate of 6.9 in the past 20 years, which has also increased the pressure on feed. The industry predicts that by 2030, the demand for feed grain consumption will increase. Only economical and efficient use of feed grain, in order to better safeguard national food security.

From the perspective of production and demand pattern, soybean meal reduction substitution is conducive to ensuring the stability of the agricultural industry chain supply chain. The essence of aquaculture is the transformation of feed through the abdomen of animals. In our country, corn and soybean meal are the main feed grains, corn is energy feed, soybean meal is protein feed. At present, the world's century-old changes and century-old epidemics are intertwined, and multiple factors such as geopolitical risks, extreme weather disasters and poor supply chains are superimposed, which have a profound impact on the international agricultural market pattern. China is a big producer of animal products and has a high dependence on the import of feed raw materials. In recent years, there is a gap between production and demand of soybean, which is the most imported agricultural product in China, and is mainly used for processing soybean meal and oil extraction. Only by doing a good job in soybean meal articles can we ensure the stability of the agricultural industry chain supply chain.

It can be seen that soybean meal reduction substitution is not only a passive choice to deal with the uncertainty of external supply, but also an active act to promote the high-quality development of agriculture, which is of great significance for farmers to save money, feed producers to save materials, industry-wide efficiency and national food security. The Central Office and the State Office issued the Food Saving Action Plan in October 2021, one of which is to strengthen the substitution of feed grain reduction. In the future, we should make use of the achievements of modern animal nutrition, take the reduction and substitution of soybean meal as a breakthrough, fully tap agricultural resources, and improve the quality and efficiency of agriculture.

Reducing soybean meal is both necessary and feasible. Animals need protein to grow, mainly to get amino acids. Reducing the demand for soybean meal feeding, mainly through the promotion of high-quality low-protein diet technology, as well as the replacement of soybean meal with other miscellaneous meal, will not affect the nutrition of meat, eggs and milk. Since 2018, many places and enterprises have been replacing soybean meal reduction. In 2021, the proportion of soybean meal in the feed consumed by the national aquaculture industry dropped to 15.3, down 2.5 percentage points from 2017, saving 11 million tons of soybean meal, equivalent to 14 million tons of soybeans, equivalent to more than 0.1 billion mu of arable land output.

There is still more room for soybean meal reduction substitution. On the one hand, there is momentum in the reduction. What kind of feed breeding enterprises use depends mainly on whether the cost performance is cost-effective and whether the supply is stable. In the first eight months of this year, the average domestic soybean meal price per ton increased by 1400 yuan compared with 2019, driving the feed cost to increase by more than 200 yuan per ton. The rise in the cost of feed ingredients will be transmitted to the price of farmed products, but also make enterprises more motivated to promote soybean meal reduction. On the other hand, substitution is conditional. China's amino acid industry is at the leading level in the world, with the ability to produce all animal essential amino acids, the output and production capacity are leading in the world, and the prices of most products have dropped to an acceptable level for feed breeding enterprises.

To promote the substitution of soybean meal reduction, we should change the traditional concept. Some farmers and feed producers unilaterally believe that the higher the protein content of feed, the better. In some places, they believe that the general cultivated land can only grow grain but not grass. It is necessary to change concepts, fully tap the potential of arable land, agricultural slack land, saline-alkali land, grassland and other resources, and accelerate the establishment of a modern forage industry system. To promote the substitution of soybean meal reduction, we should continue to increase the supply of high-quality forage grass and build a feed formula structure suitable for China's national conditions and resource characteristics. Increase the supply of high-quality forage grass such as whole-plant silage corn, alfalfa and forage oats, and guide cattle and sheep farmers to change the habit of relying too much on concentrated feed.

To promote the substitution of soybean meal reduction, it should be included in the scope of ecological product value compensation mechanism. Excessive intake of protein from farmed animals will be excreted in the form of urine nitrogen or fecal nitrogen, which will not only cause protein waste, but also increase environmental pressure. The promotion of low protein diet technology, the use of economic, accurate feed formula, can reduce the pressure on the environment. However, the current environmental benefits of soybean meal reduction instead of its pollution reduction and greenhouse gas control have not been widely recognized by the society and cannot be realized as economic benefits. After incorporating the ecological product value compensation mechanism, it will be more able to mobilize the enthusiasm of breeding enterprises.