Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 6th, by wire Topic: Establishing a counter-cyclical control mechanism for pig production to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the industry-the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs answered a reporter’s question on the “Opinions on Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the Pig Industry”
Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Lu
Recently, six departments including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the “Opinions on Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the Pig Industry.”
Why publish this opinion? What are the important measures proposed by the opinions? How will it be implemented? The reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on the 6th.
Question: Why did you issue this opinion this time?
Answer: Live pig production and pork supply are major issues related to people’s livelihood, price stability, and farmers’ income. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the stable production and supply of live pigs.
Since the beginning of the new century, my country’s pig production has experienced five major fluctuations. Especially in the last time, the number of pigs and the number of reproductive sows has been greatly reduced, and the impact of the African swine fever and the new crown pneumonia epidemic is superimposed, making it difficult to recover. In accordance with the decisions and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and with the joint efforts of various localities and relevant departments, the production of live pigs has been restored, the pork market is relatively abundant, and the price has dropped significantly. However, it should be noted that the foundation for the stable development of the pig industry is still not strong.
In the recent period, pork prices have fallen rapidly, pig breeding has suffered losses, and the enthusiasm of farms (households) to develop production has been frustrated. The grassroots reported that the policies for land use, environmental protection, and insurance that are popular among farms (households) introduced in 2019 have a trend of tightening. Some places have made a sharp turn in policy, which may further magnify the impact of the market downturn. Once again resulting in a substantial decline in production capacity, coupled with rising breeding costs and the uncertainty of the African swine fever epidemic, the task of stabilizing pig production and ensuring market supply is very arduous.
The issued opinions are to adhere to the problem-oriented and goal-oriented, consolidate the results of the recovery of pig production capacity, build a long-term mechanism for stabilizing production and supply, stabilize and continue long-term support policies, establish a production countercyclical control mechanism, prevent large fluctuations in production capacity, and promote pigs The industry continues to develop healthily, and continuously improves the ability to guarantee the safety of pork supply.
Question: What goals and measures does the opinion put forward?
Answer: The opinions are divided into 5 parts and 17 articles, clarifying the guiding ideology, working principles, and development goals for the development of the pig industry, emphasizing that the province is responsible for the implementation of the stable production and supply of pigs, and highlighting the key measures for the regulation and control of pig production capacity, which will guide my country in the future. Programmatic document for the development of the pig industry.
The opinion puts forward that in 5 to 10 years, a new pattern of high-quality development of the pig industry with high output, product safety, resource conservation, environmental friendliness, and effective regulation will be basically formed. Periodic market fluctuations will be effectively alleviated, and the pork self-sufficiency rate will remain at Around 95%.
To this end, the opinions put forward four main measures:
The first is to stabilize the long-term support policy for pig production. Stabilize the pig loan policy and support the incorporation of eligible pig breeding-related loans into the scope of policy business in accordance with procedures. Improve policy insurance for live pigs, and encourage and support the development and expansion of live pig income insurance where conditions permit. Deeply promote the reform of “delegation, management and service” of environmental impact assessment for large-scale pig breeding projects. All localities shall not arbitrarily expand the scope of forbidden areas beyond the provisions of laws and regulations.
The second is to establish a counter-cyclical regulation mechanism for pig production. The “master switch” for the production and market supply of reproductive sows is taken as the core control indicator, and abnormal changes automatically trigger a regulation mechanism to maintain a reasonable inventory level of reproductive sows.
The third is to improve the comprehensive emergency system for stable production and supply of live pigs. Establish a comprehensive information platform for the pig industry, strengthen the monitoring and early warning of the entire industry chain, do a good job in the prevention and control of major diseases such as African swine fever, strengthen the regulation of pork reserves, and scientifically guide the pace of pork imports.
The fourth is to continue to promote the modernization of the pig industry. Coordinately promote the development of large-scale breeding farms and small and medium-sized breeding farms (households), build a modern pig breeding industry, optimize the layout of pig slaughtering and processing, and accelerate the utilization of breeding wastes as resources.
Question: How about the current recovery of live pig production and the supply of pork in the market?
Answer: Compared with before, the depth of production decline and price increase in this “pig cycle” are unprecedented. According to the monitoring of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the stock of reproductive sows and live pigs decreased by about 40% year-on-year when the production capacity was low. In the fourth week of February 2020, pork prices increased by 165% year-on-year.
But the level of policy support is unprecedented. The central government has clarified the requirement that the province be responsible for the stable production and supply of live pigs. The relevant departments have intensively introduced a number of supporting policies, and major breakthroughs have been made in policies such as breeding land, environmental assessment and credit. In response to the severe decline in live pig production capacity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has made the restoration of live pig production a major task in agricultural and rural work for three consecutive years, and has implemented comprehensive policies in conjunction with relevant departments to accelerate the recovery of live pig production.
With this promotion, pig production quickly recovered. It took about one and a half years from a severe landslide to return to normal, while the average recovery time of the previous “pig cycle” was 2 years. A large number of high-level large-scale pig farms have emerged rapidly, and a number of small and medium-sized farmers have been transformed and upgraded and entered the ranks of large-scale breeding. In 2020, the scale-up rate of pig breeding will reach 57.1%, an increase of 4.1% over the previous year.
Currently, pig production has resumed. According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of pigs in the country was 439 million at the end of June, returning to 99.4% at the end of 2017. Among them, the number of breeding sows was 45.64 million, returning to 102.1% at the end of 2017. In the first half of the year, the output of pork was 27.15 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 35.9%. In the last week of July, the price of pork in the national bazaar was 25.93 yuan per kilogram, which was 33.71 yuan lower than the highest price in this round of “pig cycle” (the third week of February 2020). Pig prices have fallen and breeding profits have continued to narrow. Many farms (households) have accelerated the elimination of low-yielding sows and optimized the structure of the pig herd.
The second half of the year is the peak season for pork consumption. Affected by the inertia of production growth, the production of fat pigs will also increase. Based on a comprehensive judgment, the supply and demand of the pork market will maintain a basic balance within a certain period of time.
Question: How will the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs implement the various policies put forward by the opinions?
Answer: In the next step, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will work with relevant departments to earnestly implement the opinions and accelerate the establishment of a long-term mechanism for stable pig production and development to meet consumer pork demand and enable farmers to have reasonable profits. Focus on four tasks:
One is to strictly implement work responsibilities. Formulate and improve specific work measures, increase supervision and guidance, focus on the strict implementation of the provincial general responsibility and the “vegetable basket” mayor responsibility system, and stabilize the long-term support policies of finance, finance, land use, and environmental protection.
The second is to strengthen policy funding support. Strengthen financial security and financial services, increase financial support for stabilizing production and supply, transformation and upgrading, give play to the guiding role of supporting agriculture and small-scale refinancing, and expand live pig income insurance.
The third is to strengthen monitoring and early warning. Strengthen the construction of live pig production and market monitoring and early warning systems, and timely and accurately grasp the production and supply conditions. Establish a live pig information release system, promptly consult and interpret the production and sales situation, and guide production entities to adjust production capacity rationally to better adapt to changes in market conditions.
The fourth is to give full play to the role of the main body of the enterprise. Vigorously support the transformation and upgrading of breeding enterprises, in particular, strengthen information services and technical guidance, promote the coordinated development of leading enterprises from large to small, encourage various market entities to provide small and medium-sized farmers to provide various forms of social services, and accelerate the establishment of modern The pig breeding system, disease prevention and control system, and processing and circulation system will promote the development of green cycles, improve the quality of industrial development, and promote the modernization of the pig industry.
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