Ministry Affirms Move to Intensify Production

VIET NAM - The Ministry of Agriculture is encouraging a move from backyard to intensive livestock and poultry production to increase output.

17 November 2008

2 minute read

Asia

Viet Nam will aim to modernise its animal husbandry and poultry sectors, shifting from a household-based economy to one based on industrial farms by 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has affirmed, reports an official source.

The aim is to gradually remove conventional forms of livestock breeding by rural households across the country.

Do Kim Tuyen, head of the Cattle Breeding Department under the ministry, said at a recent seminar that apart from meeting domestic demand, Viet Nam's livestock industry is also targeting some export markets, especially China and Hong Kong.

According to the ministry's strategic plan, industrial density in the agriculture production as a whole will stand at 32, 38 and 42 per cent respectively by 2010, 2015 and 2020.

By 2010, the sector targets an output of 3.2 million tonnes of meat. The number would be 5.5 million tonnes for 2020.

Also by 2020, per-capita output is expected to reach 56 kilos of meat, 140 eggs and more than 10 kilos of milk.

However, Mr Tuyen said Viet Nam's target for the next 12 years is equal only to China's current figures, adding that the domestic livestock industry still had a long way to go.

All farms, slaughterhouses and meat processing enterprises would be required to have their own waste treatment systems, he stressed.

Animal feed is a matter of concern now, as farmers and breeders have not paid much attention to the role of agricultural byproducts like sugar cane or soybean waste, said Mr Tuyen, adding that disposing them into the environment was both wasteful and harmful.

"It is such a waste because 50 per cent of the animal feed for the livestock industry has to be imported," Mr Tuyen said, adding that if it was utilised, the existing amount of agricultural byproducts could feed 10 million cattle.

The report concludes that not utilising feed processed from agricultural byproducts partially increased market prices for meat since Vietnamese breeders often used imported feed, which increased production costs and reduced their competitiveness.