Investment needed in livestock breeding

 

A worker feeds pigs at the farm of Bui Dinh Hoan in Trung Hoa Commune, Chuong My District, Ha Noi. Small-scale households are causing environmental pollution and complicating efforts to control outbreaks of epidemics in the city. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue

HA NOI — Over 60 per cent of Ha Noi's livestocks reared by small-scale households are causing environmental pollution and difficulties in epidemic control. However, lack of funds is preventing farmers from raising the scale of production.

Nguyen Van Minh, deputy head of the Animal Husbandry Unit under the Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said most of the 1.5 million cattle and 18 million hens were bred in households with an area of less than 10,000sq m, many located in residential areas.

These small-scale production systems had inferior production practices and did not adopt bio-security measures to protect the environment and mitigate the risks of animal disease outbreaks.

The city's People's Committee has offered financial assistance to households to remove their farms from residential areas, to hire land for animal production and apply waste treatment systems and new breeding techniques.

However, the conditions require their farms to be 500m from schools, hospital, residential areas and industrial areas; having an area of more than 1,000sq m; housing 100 commercial pigs, 2,000 chickens or 10 cows and buffaloes.

Hoang Van Tham, an official of Chuong My District's People's Committee, said most farmers failed to meet these conditions so the district had set up a 15-ha collective farm for farmers to lease to raise poultry and cattle.

However, no road, electricity and waste treatment system had reached this farm yet as the district was waiting for funds from the City, Tham said.

Collective breeding farms costing VND110-120 billion (US$5.2-5.7 million) in other districts had suffered the same fate, such as in Thanh Oai, Ung Hoa or Hoai Duc.

Minh said the city planned to give partial support to districts to set up basic infrastructure systems of collective farms, including roads, electricity and water appliances and waste treatment systems.

The districts should also check farmers wanting a place in such farms.

However, Deputy Chairman of the city's People's Committee Tran Xuan Viet said the city planned to reduce the number of small-scale breeding households to 40 per cent by 2015 so the city would give more financial support for farmers to raise their production scale. — VNS