Why is circular livestock farming beneficial for avoiding industrial fluctuation risks?
According to reports from Sichuan media, in order to achieve large-scale livestock farming, in 2013 Lezhi County of that province built the Shengmeiyuan Modern Livestock Farming Science and Technology Demonstration Park in Longmen Township, with automated and semi-automated facilities for feeding, temperature control, underfloor heating, watering and monitoring throughout the park; the 14 completed biogas digesters provided daily electricity without interruption, and the pigs, grass chickens, sika deer and other livestock raised in the park moved about in herds, making the demonstration park's economic benefits increasingly obvious.
Livestock farming belongs to the broad agricultural sector, which has high potential risks and low output profits, and its obvious cyclical nature has once made many investors“return in defeat”. Take pig farming as an example: many farmers follow the old path of building pig sheds, buying piglets, buying feed, and raising them to market weight. When pig prices are good there is still profit to be made, but once pig prices fall they can only lose money. Small-scale operations withdraw automatically, while larger-scale ones find it hard to extricate themselves because of the large fixed-asset investment made earlier.
Lezhi County used scientific and technological means to achieve integrated circular operations covering raising, reuse of manure, self-sufficiency in cultivating feed, supporting cultivation of fruit trees, biogas power generation, and using biogas slurry to grow grass, bringing vigorous vitality to the circular development of livestock farming. The innovative path it has taken is one of the future directions for the development of livestock farming, and this practical, replicable and effective successful development experience is worth promoting comprehensively.
The benefits of developing circular livestock farming are obvious. First, it reduces feeding costs at the source; second, it avoids environmental pollution from livestock manure; third, it reduces the intensity of human labor with the help of scientific and technological facilities; fourth, it realizes the potential of complementary advantages; fifth, it avoids the impact brought by cyclical risks. It is precisely because of the harsh reality that livestock farming has had poor benefits and thin profits in recent years that Lezhi County took the practical step of trying a circular development path, and that it gained the rewards of becoming prosperous through circular development. In view of the cyclical disadvantage of the livestock farming industry, taking the path of circular development to avoid risks is quite important.
On the one hand, the state should establish a management body that supports the circular development of livestock farming, and implement a series of mandatory policies including government encouragement, fiscal budget support, relevant tax and fee reductions, and discipline inspection and supervision to ensure implementation, so as to ensure that circular development of livestock farming is carried out in place.
On the other hand, relying on the correct guidance and public-interest support of government departments in charge of livestock farming at all levels and of public opinion, mutual-aid cooperatives for circular development of livestock farming should be established and improved, drawing in all kinds of livestock farming practitioners to jointly establish a circular development fund, with a matching special fund for government assistance and development, opening dedicated mutual-aid fund accounts at policy banks of the state, and implementing an administrative supervision responsibility system for the use of funds, so as to ensure that the circular development of livestock farming is not affected by funding constraints.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture should take the lead in establishing a nationwide talent pool of livestock farming experts, so that livestock farming can receive expert support from the very start of taking the path of circular development, reducing investment losses caused by detours, and achieving the ideal effect for developing the circular economy of livestock farming of“helping it mount the horse, holding the reins steady, and then seeing it a stage further”.