Livestock industry transformation and upgrading aim at whole-industry-chain development
On June 15, the National Conference on Modern Livestock Industry Development was held in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province. Representatives of relevant departments and industry experts discussed how China's livestock industry can seek transformation breakthroughs.
Livestock farming must move at a fast pace
As people's income levels rise and urbanization advances, demand for meat, eggs and milk is still growing rigidly. According to estimates, more than 800,000 tons of additional meat demand is generated each year. Wang Zhicai, Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that at present China's per capita daily intake of animal protein is 33 grams, exceeding the world average but still far below the level of developed countries.
“More importantly, the consumption structure is still upgrading. People not only need to eat enough, but also need to eat with confidence; they not only need quantity, but also need higher quality. To ensure both industrial development and product quality and safety, there is an urgent need to accelerate the building of a modern livestock industry.” said Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture.
While consumer demand for livestock products is upgrading, price fluctuations in livestock products attract even more attention. In recent years, affected by rising production costs in the livestock industry, declining comparative returns, and increasing risks from disease and market volatility, income from livestock and poultry breeding has become more unstable. Since 2009, breeding costs have increased by nearly 40%, and many breeders have increased production without increasing income.
International experience shows that countries with developed agriculture all have highly developed livestock industries. Today, China's livestock industry has already developed from a family sideline into a major industry. However, its development is still extensive, its share of agricultural output value is still not high, the structure of grain, cash crops and feed is unreasonable, and the proportions of breeding, farming and processing are uncoordinated. Han Changfu believes that China's per capita arable land area is small, and crop farming is notably constrained by the scale of operation. By contrast, the livestock industry is more capital-intensive, has more obvious advantages in technology-intensive development, can more easily achieve breakthroughs in scale of operation, and can take the lead in realizing modernization within agriculture.
Standardization is the guarantee
According to estimates, China consumes 230 million kilograms of meat, 80 million kilograms of poultry eggs and 100 million kilograms of milk every day. “With such a huge volume of consumption, the most fundamental way to ensure that supply does not run into problems is to maintain the stock of basic female livestock and protect the enthusiasm of farmers and herdsmen for raising female livestock.” Han Changfu introduced that since last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance have implemented subsidies for expanding herds of basic female beef cattle, which have achieved good results, and relevant policies should continue to be improved and expanded in the future.
With basic female livestock, it is also necessary to rely on the combination of improved breeds and improved methods. The selection and breeding of improved livestock and poultry breeds concerns the long-term development of the livestock industry. Experts believe that it is necessary to implement genetic improvement plans for major livestock breeds such as pigs and dairy cattle, keep in mind the four-character formula of “breeding, propagation, promotion and raising”, make the improved breed breeding system larger and stronger, and gradually reduce dependence on imported breeding livestock and poultry. To build a modern livestock industry, the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress in animal husbandry must reach at least about 70%, while at present it is only 55%.
Decentralized farming by individual households is regarded as a drawback of the traditional livestock industry. How can decentralized farming be shifted to scaled farming? Han Changfu said that it is necessary to support the construction of a number of scaled and standardized livestock and poultry farms, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, improve quality and efficiency, and solve the problem of “how to raise them.” It is necessary to accelerate the cultivation of new types of business entities, and provide support to large breeding households, family farms, cooperatives and others in terms of project funds, financial insurance and technology promotion, so as to form a new type of operating system with diverse entities and coordinated complementarity, and effectively solve the problem of “who will raise them.”
In addition, the livestock industry chain is long. From production to market, livestock products involve multiple links such as breeding, farming, processing and sales, as well as supporting industries such as feed and veterinary drugs. In this regard, experts believe that to build a modern livestock industry, comprehensive efforts must be made in forward and backward extension, circulation and processing, and socialized services, and enterprises should be encouraged to develop in depth into breeding, planting and processing to create a whole industry chain.
Cattle, sheep and milk are the focus
Since the beginning of the new century, China's consumption of beef and mutton has increased rapidly, and prices have risen for many consecutive years, jokingly called “Bull Demon King” and “Lady Sheep” by people. Beef and mutton have changed from being mainly consumed by ethnic minorities to being consumed by the whole population, and from mainly seasonal consumption in autumn and winter to year-round consumption. Experts judge that China has reached a new stage of vigorously developing herbivorous livestock farming and increasing the supply of beef and mutton.
Wang Zhicai said that it is necessary to grasp the “nose ring” of female livestock expansion and breeding. The low productivity level of female livestock is the main bottleneck constraint. On average, one cow cannot produce one calf per year, and one ewe can produce at most two lambs per year. It is necessary to make good use of the subsidy policy for basic female livestock, and in accordance with the method of “subsidizing the mother upon seeing the calf”, support moderate-scale farms in expanding their female livestock herds and increasing volume, and consolidate the production foundation. At the same time, it is also necessary to cultivate the main force of major breeding counties. This year, the central government arranged 500 million yuan to implement reward policies for 100 major cattle and sheep counties in five provinces and regions including Inner Mongolia and Qinghai, in order to mobilize local enthusiasm for developing cattle and sheep production.
The dairy industry best reflects the modernization level of the livestock industry. Han Changfu said that to revitalize China's dairy industry, it is necessary to do a good job in the “three products”, namely breed improvement, quality improvement and brand creation; advance the “four modernizations”, namely scale, intensification, standardization and industrialization; and comprehensively improve the quality and safety level of raw milk.
After several years of rectification and development, the transformation and upgrading of the dairy industry has taken solid steps. The proportion of scaled farming with more than 100 head exceeds 40%, and the pass rate of raw milk sampling inspections has remained at 100% for six consecutive years. “Looking to the long term, especially, it is necessary to vigorously promote integrated operation of the dairy industry.” Han Changfu said that milk is fresh and perishable, and production and processing cannot be disconnected, which determines that the dairy industry is most in need of integrated operation. “Our country is large, and it is impossible to organize all the country's dairy farmers into one dairy cooperative, but they can be organized by region. All localities should vigorously cultivate new types of dairy business entities, improve the interest linkage mechanism between dairy enterprises and dairy farmers, and continuously raise the degree of organization in the dairy industry.”