Subsidies to encourage breeding programs

A guideline on promoting the high-quality development of the animal husbandry industry issued by the General Office of the State Council on Sept 27 outlined priorities to boost the sector’s efficiency and competitiveness.

Efforts will be made to form a new high-quality development pattern in the sector that will see greater efficiency, safer products, efficient resource use, environmentally friendly production and effective regulation.

According to the guideline, the nation’s self-sufficiency rate for hog products should stay at about 95 percent, with beef and mutton at about 85 percent and the rate for dairy products at about 70 percent.

It also said more than 70 percent of livestock and poultry breeding should be done on a large scale by 2025, and more than 75 percent by 2030.

The guideline called for efforts to facilitate the development of a modern farming system and strengthen the cultivation and promotion of exceptional breeds. To that end, subsidies will be provided to aid breeding programs in pastoral areas.

It also called for further improvements to the country’s animal disease prevention system.

To build a modern processing and distribution system, the overall quality of the slaughtering and processing industry should be further improved, with largescale, privately owned slaughtering enterprises established or revamped and small slaughtering stalls removed or merged.

A cold-chain processing and transportation system for livestock and poultry products should be improved in an efficient manner, the guideline said.

Cutting-edge technologies, including big data, artificial intelligence, cloud-computing and the internet of things, should play a bigger role in animal husbandry, it added.