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Soya beans in Siberia

A combine harvests soya beans in a village in Russia’s Far East region that borders China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province.
A combine harvests soya beans in a village in Russia’s Far East region that borders China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province.

Soya bean farmers are finding new opportunities in Russia’s warming regions. Rising temperatures in the world’s largest country are lengthening growing seasons, and planting is expanding in the Central and Southern regions — and, as previously unthinkable, in Siberia. Russia’s soya bean production, while minuscule compared to the world’s top two producers — Brazil and the US — is on a growth trajectory with the government’s ambitious goal to double production in the far eastern Amur region by 2024.