How the breeding industry can embark on the path of transformation and upgrading
In Wushan Village, Shebu Town, Xiangtan County today, the warm autumn sun has draped the hills and waters here in a golden coat. On a site covering more than 200 mu, the sign "Yangxiang Zhongxiong Breeding Pig Multiplication Farm" stands out prominently. To build more than 20,000 sq m of breeding pig pens as quickly as possible and to reach a scale of 5,000 sows in stock year-round and 100,000 fattened pigs marketed, the people here are working at full sweat, day and night without rest.
And this is just one clear spring in the mighty torrent of "transformative development" in Xiangtan's breeding industry. In Houruo Village, Ruyi Town, Shaoshan City, a breeding pig farm with an annual output of 20,000 head, built with a 30 million yuan investment by "Chia Tai of Thailand," is about to go into production; the Shaziling Pig Multiplication Farm in Yuhu District, invested in and built by the Shaziling Pig Industrial Development Company, is also under intensive construction.
"The breeding industry must seek scale and efficiency through industrialization!" In early spring of this year, guided by the spirit of the central government's "transformative development" instructions, Xiangtan's breeding industry sprinted toward corporate and industrialized development. So far, corporate and industrialized development has rapidly leapfrogged from the relatively well-established pig-raising sector to herbivorous animal breeding and fishery aquaculture. In Yutang Town of Xiangxiang City and Huashi Town of Xiangtan County, quite a few "company + farmer" commercial cattle and commercial sheep breeding enterprises have emerged; Qingshan Lvshui Special Breeding Co., Ltd. and Swan Lake Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., meanwhile, have set their sights ongooseraising, a "niche" sector, to show their prowess. They have built more than 10,000 sq m of goose housing, with 20,000 breeding geese in stock, and are raising French Landes geese, Sichuan white geese and Xupu geese on a large scale, able to supply more than 1 million high-quality poultry chicks and produce more than 1 million commercial geese to the market each year. Building fisheries against the hills and beside the water has become a major sight in Xiangtan City; the nine leisure farmsteads each with annual revenue above 10 million yuan possess a leisure-type fishery aquaculture area of 10,097 mu. The scale of breeding soft-shelled turtles, eels, mandarin fish, topmouth culter and fine-scaled Xenocypris is constantly expanding, and the area for famous and superior aquatic products has reached 150,000 mu.
"The creation of the 'company + cooperative + farmer' model is the fundamental force behind Xiangtan's breeding industry achieving scale and improving efficiency." The situation described by Wu Maisheng, chief animal husbandry engineer of the Xiangtan Municipal Animal Husbandry Bureau, is inspiring. So far, the city has seen the emergence of more than 80 large-scale enterprises engaged in the breeding industry and more than 100 specialized cooperatives; together with hundreds of thousands of farming households they form a community of shared interests, guided by the market, selecting and breeding superior stock, raising scientifically and cultivating markets. This has brought Xiangtan, with only one county and two cities, to an annual output of 5.7 million head of live pigs marketed, with per capita ownership more than 3 times the national average. At the same time, meat processing enterprises have grown to 13, processing 4 million head per year. There are 17 pigskin processing enterprises, processing 20 million pigskins per year. The export rate of live pigs exceeds 75%, and the annual output value of live pigs and related industries reaches more than 30 billion yuan, with more than 60% of farmers' newly added income coming from pig raising. If the income from herbivorous animal breeding and fisheries is included, the income from fish farming accounts for more than 70% of farmers' newly added income.
(Part 2)
As the breeding industry advances toward scale, market orientation and socialization, "government leadership" has played a key role --
"Government leadership" is demonstrated not only in deepening institutional and mechanism reform, policy support and other aspects; the simultaneous advancement of scientific and technological assistance and safety supervision has also made great contributions.
Animal epidemic prevention work is the lifeline for the stable development of the breeding industry. To ensure that no regional major animal epidemic occurs, this year they carried out two major campaigns for the prevention and control of major animal epidemics, in spring and in autumn and winter. In addition to the agricultural departments taking the field, relevant departments such as the Municipal People's Congress, the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, the inspection office of the Municipal Party Committee General Office, the Municipal Government Inspection Office and the Municipal Finance Bureau also joined the inspections. Especially in doing a good job of monitoring and controlling the H7N9 subtype influenza epidemic, the municipal government convened a special meeting to make arrangements, and all relevant departments took precautions and maintained strict vigilance. Over the past year, no regional major animal epidemic has occurred within the Xiangtan City area.
The quality and safety of livestock, poultry and aquatic products concerns public health and social stability, and is also an important guarantee for the healthy and sustainable development of the breeding industry. At the beginning of the year, they formulated the "General Rules of the 2013 Xiangtan Implementation Plan for the Rectification of the Quality and Safety of Veterinary Drugs, Feed, Livestock, Poultry and Aquatic Products" and the "2013 Implementation Plan for the Special Rectification Action against Prohibited Substances such as 'lean meat powder.'" In mid-March, they carried out a massive special governance campaign on breeding industry inputs; within the 10 days of early November, more than 60 law enforcement personnel carried out a dragnet-style inspection and sampling action against "lean meat powder" in the breeding process. The promulgation of these policies and regulations and the implementation of these special governance actions enabled them to grasp the quality and safety gate of the breeding industry from the source.
Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and the fact that Xiangtan's breeding industry could win the first battle in "transformative development" is undoubtedly due in large part to increased input of science and technology. What is most welcomed by Xiangtan's large breeding households is that both Xiangtan County and Xiangxiang City took the lead in establishing and implementing a science and technology commissioner system; they hired experts and professors from Hunan Agricultural University, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Animal Husbandry and the Hunan Provincial Institute of Microbiology, and carefully organized local scientific and technical personnel to select and promote superior varieties and carry out epidemic prevention and scientific breeding methods, so that commercial pigs, cattle, sheep and aquatic products grow faster, have better meat quality and fetch higher prices. Now, the science and technology commissioner system has been extended throughout the city. Benefiting from the blessings brought by the input of science and technology, the vast number of breeding enterprises and farming households are continuously adding investment and expanding their scale of operation. Together they adorn the colorful spring of Xiangtan's breeding industry.