January 23, 2007

Northern Vietnam eyeing bigger livestock production in 2008

The northern region of Vietnam has been asked to finalise its master plan developing animal and poultry farms on a large scale by 2008, increasing the number of farms by 30 percent annually.

Experts set the target at a recent conference held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the northern port city of Haiphong, amid increasing threat by foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks and bird flu.

Industry players said that once the target is achieved, farms can make up around 45 to 50 percent of the nation's meat supply by 2010 and between 60 percent and 65 percent by 2015. 

Over the past five years, animal and poultry farms have grown at 58 percent annually, reaching over 17,720 farms in total from 1,761 in 2001.

Large scale animal husbandry would make it easier to apply scientific and technological advances to all steps such as hybridization and animal feeding, considerably improving product quality and production output.