Livestock production and food safety receive extra funds from World Bank

The World Bank announced that it would provide US$45 million in additional financing for an on-going project, first approved in 2009, to boost livestock production and improve food safety in Vietnam.

The project, which received initial funding of US$65.26 million from the bank and US$13.77 from the Vietnamese government, aims to increase the efficiency of household livestock producers, reduce the sector’s environmental impacts and improve food safety in livestock supply chains.

The World Bank-funded project helps poor Vietnamese farmers adopt good animal husbandry practices.

The bank’s Senior Rural Development Specialist Vo Thanh Son said the additional financing would scale up the project’s initial activities by expanding good animal husbandry practices to farmers in other areas of the 12 project provinces.

According to the World Bank, the adoption of such practices has helped improve livestock production and incomes for households by reducing mortality rates for pigs and poultry.

The project has also helped reduce fattening time for animals and has expanded the size of the pig and poultry populations to lower the costs of animal feeding, raising output and increasing returns.

In addition, it has contributed to food safety by helping abattoirs improve their facilities and practices, and has supported the upgrading of meat markets to meet sanitation and food safety standards.

Keeping livestock is especially important for poor households as a major source of food and a means to save and accumulate capital for Vietnamese farmers.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)