Developing livestock towards modern and sustainable production

​Industrial chicken farm with export standard to the Japanese market in Long Thanh district. Photo: Nam Vu

In the integration phase, the province continues to focus on sustainable development of the livestock industry towards modern industry, applying high technology to compete strongly when entering the world ‘playground’.

Modern animal husbandry

In 2019, the livestock industry faced many difficulties, especially pig production with great losses due to the impact of African swine fever, but the value of livestock products still reached over VND 21.3 trillion, accounting for a large proportion in the entire agricultural sector with production value of agriculture, forestry and fishery reaching nearly VND 41.8 trillion.

In particular, the pig industry is gradually recovering with a total herd of nearly 2.1 million heads, decreased by over 8.3% on YoY basis, but increased by hundreds of thousands compared to the time when the total swine herd dropped sharply due to the loss of African swine fever. The biggest advantage of Dong Nai is that there is still a total sow herd, of which the herd is higher than that of many provinces in the country. This breed is mainly invested by large enterprises and breeding farms in a professional and methodical manner.

Mr. Tran Tien, Deputy General Director of CP Vietnam Livestock Joint Stock Company (Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Park, Bien Hoa City) said that the enterprise currently has many sow farms in the South operating stably. C.P is also restructuring animal husbandry activities, prioritizing the development of farms far away from residential areas and good disease control. This business focuses on building a team of technicians, veterinarians to the farm to support the processing farms for C.P on the prevention and control of African swine fever when there is a need to re-herd pigs.

Assessing the development trend of the poultry industry, Mr. Le Van Quyet, Vice Chairman of the Southeast Poultry Association said that industrial chicken farming at this time has passed the phase of ‘following the movement’. Currently, farm breeding accounts for more than 90% of the total herd, most of the farms are invested according to modern industrial standards, join chain links or outsource to large enterprises.

Towards sustainability

Dong Nai encourages the development of animal husbandry towards industry and large-scale. Photo: Hoa Phuong farm in Tan An commune, (Vinh Cuu district). Taken by: Nam Vu

In the future orientation, the livestock industry will continue to develop in the direction of industry on a large scale, meeting safety standards. Accordingly, farmers must take into account the problem of long-term competition when entering the international playing field by improving productivity, building a product chain not only to meet the domestic market but also to export; Complete a chain of livestock products from production to the dining table under a closed system from production, slaughter, processing to consumption, etc. In particular, the branding for the livestock product chain also needs to be properly invested, especially for VietGAHP certified products to have a truly sustainable output with prestige and quality.

According to Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Huynh Thanh Vinh, Dong Nai's advantage is that there are many large corporations and enterprises in the livestock industry linked from production to consumption. In the orientation of livestock development in the integration stage, the province continues to encourage the linkage models between enterprises and small-scale livestock households to provide breeds, transfer breeding techniques to ensure safety for farmers.

Nam Vu

On the occasion of working in Dong Nai, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien highly appreciated the results Dong Nai achieved in the re-herding, especially in the recovery of breeding pigs. The recent rise in pork prices means an opportunity for the locality to replicate the model of clean breeding, biosafety breeding, ensuring the pork output to be supplied to the market at the end of the year.