How can the livestock industry ensure supply and boost income at the same time?
In the just-concluded 2014, Xinjiang's livestock industry achieved encouraging results. According to data from the animal husbandry department, at the end of the year the region had 55.33 million head (animals) of livestock on hand, up 4.2% year on year, 59.77 million head (animals) slaughtered, up 4.5% year on year, and total annual meat output of 2.68 million tons, an increase of 5.12%, with new progress made in the development of the livestock industry focused on mutton sheep and beef cattle production.
This year's government work report proposed that Xinjiang should accelerate the transformation of the development model of agriculture and animal husbandry this year, promote quality improvement and efficiency gains in agriculture and animal husbandry, and, in accordance with the requirement to “stabilize grain, adjust cotton, optimize fruit, and boost livestock,” accelerate the upgrading of the modern livestock industry. As agricultural production across the region enters a new period of transformation, upgrading and structural adjustment, how should the livestock industry develop so as to balance the two major tasks of ensuring market supply and raising farmers' incomes?
Emphasis on large-scale breeding
Ye'erjiang · Husiman, a deputy to the autonomous region people's congress and county head of Barkol County, said that the development of the livestock industry cannot be separated from the support of large-scale breeding. Large-scale breeding can not only increase batch production capacity and meet the needs of large clients and large orders, but also has a stronger overall ability to withstand market shocks. At the same time, it can create more jobs to absorb farmers into employment, and the specialization level of livestock production will be raised.
⟦NL> In addition, this year Xinjiang will focus on resolving the bottleneck of insufficient forage in the development of the livestock industry and promote the accelerated transformation of the crop planting structure from the dual structure of grain and economic crops to the triple structure of grain, economic crops and forage. On the basis of the comprehensive production capacity construction plan for adding more than 10 million mutton sheep and beef cattle to slaughter, it must promptly launch planning and construction of a 10 million mu forage base to ensure completion of the task within 5 years. Among this, it will strive to build 3 million mu of high-quality, high-yield artificial forage land in southern Xinjiang and transform about 2.5 million mu of low-yield forage land across the region into high-quality, high-yield forage bases.
Improving the development of the forage industry
Xi Wenhai, a deputy to the autonomous region people's congress and county head of Yanqi County, believes that the development of the livestock industry cannot be separated from the support of the forage industry, and that the autonomous region's plan to expand forage planting area and increase forage supply fits very well with the current state of the region's livestock industry development. This requires livestock industry practitioners to change their conventional thinking and consider forage base construction as being just as important as livestock industry development. At the same time, it also requires livestock industry practitioners to improve their own professional qualities, master scientific feeding and raising knowledge, and increase the utilization rate of forage. In addition, there is much to be done in promoting the integration of the livestock industry with crop farming and forestry and fruit farming. For example, the development of the livestock industry can provide sufficient organic fertilizer for forest and fruit production and the development of protected agriculture; conversely, crop straw, forestry and fruit branches and leaves, and processing by-products can also provide abundant forage substitutes for the development of the livestock industry, reducing livestock feeding costs and, through the integrated interaction of agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry, forming new agricultural production models and resource utilization models and tapping the production potential of various resources.
Once the livestock industry has improved and the supply of livestock products is guaranteed, it still faces the problem of value-added processing and sales of products. Xi Wenhai said that the processing of livestock products and market cultivation should be carried out simultaneously, turning resource advantages into genuine industrial advantages. Yanqi County plans to rely on the halal food industrial park established last year, integrate livestock product processing enterprises, and use Xinjiang's locational advantages to sell products to the countries of Central Asia and West Asia, forming a value chain and driving increases in farmers' incomes.
Increasing breed improvement efforts
The Xinjiang Regional Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association also submitted a proposal on further strengthening the region's production and operation support capacity for mutton sheep and beef cattle. The proposal pointed out that the development of Xinjiang's livestock industry still requires greater breed improvement efforts and expansion of the scale of breeding female livestock.
Continue to increase efforts to introduce multiparous mutton sheep breeds and raise the coverage rate of improved breeds. Accelerate the pace of transformation, continuously raise the degree of organization among herders, vigorously support the development of breeding enterprises and large breeding households, and especially promote the construction of grass-livestock joint-operation cooperatives and develop large-scale, standardized breeding. Cultivate and introduce leading enterprises, provide preferential policies to attract capable large companies to enter the breeding industry, and use the development of large enterprises to radiate outward and drive surrounding farmers and herders to increase incomes and become prosperous.