The director of the provincial Livestock & Production Development Company, highly motivated by the local pig production development, aims here to express here his own diagnostic.
The Red River Delta (RRD), an overpopulated region in the North of Vietnam, covers a natural area of about 15,000 square Km, with a human population of nearly 17.5 million of inhabitants, over 80 percent of which lives in rural areas and practices farming. RRD groups 11 different provinces, including: Hanoi, Hai phong, Vinh phuc, Ha tay, Bac ninh, Hai duong, Hung yen, Nam dinh, Ha nam, Thai binh, and Ninh binh province. Favored by natural condition, fertile soil and tropical monsoon climate suitable to a various number of short-term crops and animals, thank to that, RRD is well known as the key agricultural region of Vietnam. The agriculture sector, especially paddy rice and livestock production (especially pigs raising), is essential for rural incomes and poverty alleviation. That is reason why the RRD farmers have deeply experienced in paddy rice cultivation, animal raising technics, and also why it has long been the major source that almost providing the Vietnam Northern provinces, cities with living foods.
Pig population in the RRD is 6,898,456 heads and including 26.2 percent of local pigs. Of which: Number of sows is 1,138,782 heads – took 31.1 % of this of the country. Gross output of living pig weight is 621,975 tones – took 34.6% of this of the country. And population of buffaloes and cattle is 759,266 heads – took 27.1% of this of whole country (statistical data 01/10/2004).
Table 1. RRD livestock production compared to other ecological regions of Vietnam ( statistical data 01/10/2004. Unit : Thousand heads)
No | Compared to Country | No | Compared to Country | No | Compared to Country | ||
(%) | (%) | (%) | |||||
1 | RRD | 6,898 | 26.2 | 59,084 | 27.1 | 770.0 | 11.6 |
2 | The East North of Northland | 4,391 | 16.6 | 39,51 | 18.1 | 741 | 11.2 |
3 | The West North of Northland | 1,176 | 4.5 | 7,875 | 3.7 | 609 | 9.2 |
4 | The North mid of Northland | 3,852 | 14.6 | 35,595 | 16.3 | 1,697 | 25.6 |
5 | The Central Coastal | 2,22 | 8.4 | 14,797 | 6.8 | 1,052 | 15.8 |
6 | The High Land of Southland | 1,489 | 5.7 | 8,682 | 4.0 | 616 | 9.3 |
7 | The East South of Southland | 2,403 | 9.1 | 17,05 | 7.8 | 705 | 10.6 |
8 | The Cuu long River Delta | 3,714 | 14.1 | 35,561 | 16.3 | 456 | 6.9 |
Total | 26,414 | 100 | 218,153 | 100 | 6,646 | 100 |
In recent years, the RRD provinces’ yield of paddy rice has reached the level of some 12 tons per hectare per year (in Thai binh province, is over 13 tons). The outstanding achievement in intensive farming of rice cultivation and other varied cereal crops as well as the short-terim industrial plants, such as: maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, and peanut, soybean, so on, these farm products and also by-products significantly considered as the favored sources of nutritious feeds – those factors themselves have positively resulted in livestock sector and raising of pigs particularly. Thus, The RRD annual average growth rate of pigs production regularly obtained a high level of 10 – 12 percent ( in Thai binh province, is over 13 percent), this is against the level of 6 – 8 percent of that of the country.
Table 2. The given situation in Thai binh province considered as a sample: ( Thai Binh: Total natural area: 1,542 Km2, Human population: nearly 1.9 mill., Human density: nearly 1,200 persons per Km2. Pigs population: 1.1 million heads )
Total of animals raising farms | 216 | 1,272 | 7,075 |
Of which: | |||
Integrated farms | 14 | 103 | 276 |
Poultry farms | 25 | 253 | 3,012 |
Pigs farms | 177 | 916 | 3,787 |
Of which: | |||
Pigs farmhouses ( farms very small) | 89 | 574 | 2,452 |
( No of sows: 5 – 10 and pokers: 20 – 50) | |||
Pig farms in small scale | 71 | 234 | 897 |
( No of sows: 20 – 50 and porkers: 50 - 100) | |||
Pigs farms in medium scale | 17 | 103 | 421 |
( No of sows: 50 – 100 and porkers: 100 – 300 ) | |||
Pigs farms in large scale | 5 | 17 | |
( No of sows: over 100 and porkers: over 300 ) | |||
Reference: Total No of small farmers (households) raising pigs of 1 – 3 heads | 419,19 | 403,12 | 411.798 |
(98.3%) | (96.7) | (96.8) |
Actually, livestock, especially pigs production, is greatly expected to be a way-out in making rich and also poverty reduction for farmers.
Beside the evident dynamical achievements, RRD pigs production is facing the environmental challenge due to overstocking of animals and also human-overpopulated. It is daily bringing in the strong pressure of environment, ecological environment, also the surface and even underground water sources. These factors themselves harmfully impacting directly into community’s living environment, especially the animals husbandry environment that causes the most catching diseases in animals. It is evident that if this problem could not be solved, RRD pigs production particularly would not be developed and state of environmental, water sources pollution may become more and more serious.
The key questions now are how to solve environmental problems mentioned above, how to save animals from environmental pollution problems... so as to promote a sustainable development of livestock production. And also how to preserve ecological, living environment, and the sources of living water from pollution.
Regarding this, local expert from Thai Binh would like to give some opinions, as follows:
Fulfilling above mentioned measures is to take significant part in sustainable development of livestock and pigs production particularly, to take fully advantage, potentials for pigs production sector in the Red River Delta of Vietnam, and save living water sources and environment of ours as well.
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