HCM City’s agriculture sector takes important solutions to restore, develop livestock activities

Dinh Minh Hiep, director of the city’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department said the COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the supply and demand chain of livestock products in the market.

Hiep said in the first five months of this year, the city needs about 750 tonnes of pork every day. Local breeders only provided about 85 tonnes daily, accounting for 11,3 per cent of the total demand.

However, during the social distancing between June and September, the consumption of pork decreased by 40-50 per cent, he said.

The pandemic also caused a sharp decrease in people’s income so the consumption also decreased at that time, he said.

Besides, businesses that purchase and slaughter pigs had to suffer from high costs due to the impact of the pandemic while the price of pork was slow, he said.

By the end of October, pig farming in the city has not recovered because farmers are still afraid to re-herd when the price of breeding pigs and animal feed is still high, he said.

In addition, the increase of imported frozen pork and the impact of the pandemic causes the consumption of all kinds of meat products being at low level, he said.

However, pig farming activities in the city still have positive signs, especially the trend of shifting from household-scale model to farm-scale model in order to increase the size of the herd, he said.

The number of households raising pigs decreases while the herd size increases by over 27 per cent. The number of pig farms increases over 14 per cent.

In the meantime, the rapid urbanisation in many districts causes cow farming activities decreasing on all scales.

In response to the situation, the city’s agricultural sector has focused on keeping the herd of pig parents at 165,000-170,000 individuals to restore the livestock activities in the last months of this year as well as next year.

The city also operates an investment stimulus programme, focusing on supporting the development of key products of the agricultural sector. It also encourages local breeders to shift from the household-scale model to farm-scale model.

The local breeders are also mobilised to change from open barn to closed barn and apply hi-tech of animal husbandry.

Moreover, the city’s agricultural sector plans to support businesses to invest in livestock activities in seven nearby provinces.

It also focuses on digitising the management of livestock activities, applying digital transformation into the main products of dairy cows, pigs to accelerate the implementation of key programmes of the sector in the 2021-25 period.

It schedules to build co-operatives in animal husbandry, participating in setting up agro-forestry-fishery linkage chains, promoting brands, supplying for domestic consumption and export, and ensuring food safety to create stable and sustainable development.

Especially, the city will focus on implementing the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh at the meeting to assess the current situation of pig farming and consumption as well as issuing solutions to strengthen management and stabilise the market to ensure the interests of breeders and consumers.

The solutions include controlling the price and lowering intermediate costs to promote livestock activities; strengthening management of the prices of animal feed products, veterinary drugs and breeding; encouraging re-herd, focusing on domestic products and reducing imported products.