Purpose: The Soybean Producer Subsidy Policy (SPSP), an agricultural support policy enacted in China within the past few years, is designed to optimise crop planting structure. This study analyses the impact of SPSP on the crop planting structure in terms of absolute and comparative incomes and elucidates the mechanisms involved.Design/methodology/approach: Utilising balanced county-level panel data from 966 counties in China’s major soybean-producing regions, spanning from 2008 to 2021, we investigate the impacts of SPSP on crop planting structure by applying a difference-in-difference (DID) model.Findings: The findings reveal several crucial insights. First, SPSP optimises the crop planting structure in Northeast China, primarily through an expansion in the area sown to soybeans and a simultaneous reduction in the area sown to maize. Second, the impacts of SPSP gradually strengthen over time but begin to weaken by 2021. Third, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effects of SPSP are most pronounced in Eastern Inner Mongolia, followed by Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. Finally, SPSP incentivises farmers to expand soybean sown areas by improving absolute rather than comparative incomes from soybean cultivation.Practical implications: Addressing structural contradictions within China’s food supply chain necessitates the adjustment of support policies for different crops to mitigate market distortions. Establishing a holistic agricultural support system encompassing various crops could promote sustainable agricultural practices in the future.Originality/value: Our findings are valuable for policy makers in China and globally who aim to establish support systems for regional linkages that include a variety of crops.

This article describes China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a quasi-natural experiment based on samples from the World Bank database, China Customs database, and China Industrial Enterprise Database from 2000 to 2007 and uses the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effect of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) on China’s agricultural exports. The study found that, first, a decline in TPU significantly increases the export volume of Chinese agricultural firms. Second, the decline in TPU significantly boosts companies engaged in general trade. Regarding export destination countries, the decline in TPU significantly promotes the agricultural firms whose export destination countries are developing countries. Regarding firms’ ownership, the promotion of agricultural exports by non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and Hong Kong-, Macao- and Taiwan-funded enterprises is even more pronounced. Third, the decline in TPU promotes the export of Chinese agricultural firms by alleviating their financing constraints. The study provides new explanations for changes in China’s agricultural exports and enriches research on the evaluation of TPU effects.