Speaking at an Oct. 14 conference in HCM City , Nguyen Xuan Duong,deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department, said more than23,558 breeding farms exist nationwide, up 13.2 percent over last year.
Most of them are located in the Red River Delta, the southeastern region, or the Mekong River Delta.
Duong said the animal husbandry industry, especially the animal feedprocessing sector, is integrating quickly with its internationalcounterparts worldwide.
At the conference, which was heldto review performance for the first three quarters, Duong said that thenumber of small-scale farms has dropped, but industrial farms, whichprovide higher productivity and quality, have increased.
Despite high input costs and animal diseases, the industry stillmaintains a high growth rate, with an increase of 16.8 percent ofpoultry output, nearly three percent of pork, and 19 percent of eggs,meeting domestic demand. However, production in different regions isunequal, causing partial shortages and price differences in severallocalities.
The sustainable development of the industry isstill threatened by small-scale scattered farms, volatility inanimal-feed prices and a high risk of disease.
In addition, most industrial farms have been developed without a zoning plan.
That is partly due to inadequate investment in the sector by theGovernment, and a lack of policies to support small-scale farmers intheir bid to enter the market economy, he said.
Otherreasons include the poor management by State agencies in controllingdisease, or the quality of breeders and animal feed.
Duongsaid the industry will continue to re-arrange its production system byencouraging development of industrial farms, linking with industrialslaughterhouses and meat processing plants.
This willensure hygiene and safety in breeding and reduce diseases to improveproductivity and quality as well as protect the environment.
He called on localities to make clear zoning plans and set aside landfunds for the industry and move farms out of residential areas.
Participants at the meeting asked the Government to create conditionsfor households and enterprises in the sector to access long-term bankloans and subsidise a part of the interest rate so they can upgradetheir breeding facilities.
In addition, many provincialdepartments of Agriculture and Rural Development have asked theGovernment to completely subsidise the cost of blue-ear vaccines.
More agriculture insurance, especially in the animal husbandryindustry, is necessary to make banks feel secure when they provide loansto breeding establishments.
Diep Kinh Tan, deputyminister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the country willcontinue to create conditions for household-based breeding to develop,but called on farmers to work together under cooperatives or tocooporate with businesses to solve environmental problems and ensureoutlets.
He asked the Animal Husbandary Department tocomplete planning for the animal breeders' system and keep a close eyeon the market, prices and disease development from now to theyear-end./.
