Illustrative image: A household chicken farm (Source: VNA) Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat urged the livestock sector to enhance the competitiveness of chicken farming during a workshop in Hanoi on August 21.
Minister Phat asked the Department of Livestock and the Department of Animal Health to map out immediate tasks to enhance the sector’s competitiveness from 2015-2020.
He also called on relevant bodies to strengthen their supervision of food safety, cut irrelevant fees and costs, develop technical barriers in line with international practices and expand markets for domestic products.
Director of the Department of Livestock Hoang Thanh Van said domestic chicken farming remains inefficient and attributed it to individual household farming practices and low quality breeding.
Van suggested that relevant bodies strengthen monitoring of chicken breeding, promote variety brand names and select suitable varieties for specific areas to enhance production efficiency.
He also called for improved connections among producers, processers and consumers.
Meanwhile, Director of the National Institute of Animal Sciences Nguyen Thanh Son pointed to the continued reliance on imported feed, young chickens and medicine, saying the dependence on foreign imports raises production costs.
According to the Department of Livestock, poultry production has seen an annual increase of 9.31 percent in output.
This year, it is expected to produce 826,000 tonnes of poultry meat, 60 percent of which will be produced by household farms.-VNA
