May 4, 2006

 

China to develop buffalo for milk and meat
 

 

China is embarking on a drive to promote buffalo as a source of milk and meat to enhance food security and support the dairy industry.

 

Buffalo milk has become the focus of the government's 11th Five-Year Development Plan (2006-2010) and Long-Term Goals Until 2020 for the dairy Industry.

 

Buffaloes used to be the workhorse of Chinese farms, but as machines replace buffaloes for farm work, they are increasingly reared for milk and meat, with the government's encouragement.

 

The programme to develop the buffalo industry, as part of the nation's 11th Five-Year Plan has enabled farmers in the region of Guangxi to supplement their incomes through the sale of buffalo meat and milk.

 

Buffalo farmers are offered free services, including inoculations, disinfection and propagation. They also get free pasture seeds, electric weed mowers, as well as credit from the government.

 

Last year, 22.36 million buffaloes were reared in the region south of China's Yellow River.

 

China's buffalo population still have room to grow by another 50 million, most of them in that region, said Yang Bingzhuang, head of the Guangxi Buffalo Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

 

Milk output is expected to be 22.4 million tonnes by 2010, to meet rising demand. Per capita consumption of dairy products is expected to be 16 kg a year, compared to 5.5 kg in 2000.

 

Northern China currently produces 80 percent of China's dairy output, but serious environmental degradation in that area is already putting future production in doubt, said Zhang Xinshi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

 

Zhang believed the national development programme would prevent environmental degradation in the north and improve food security and the dairy industry.

 

Chen Ronggui, a buffalo specialist with Guangxi Autonomous Regional Bureau of Aquatic Products and Animal Husbandry, said agencies had been working hard to provide farmers with technical skills in buffalo husbandry.

 

Plans are also afoot to import quality cross-bred buffalo from the international market to improve profitability, said Chen.