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40% of nation’s milk needs to be met by 2010
Farmers can get triple their benefits by raising a cow instead of growing rice in the district of Ba Vi, especially since there is a huge demand for milk in the country, said husbandry officials.
Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy director of the Husbandry Department said the demand for milk was increasing in the country as 80 per cent of the milk was currently imported. "If the population crosses 100 million by 2020, this will put more burden on the dairy sector," Duong said. This was why the sector planned to increase its herd of cows to 200,000 by 2010 in order to meet 40 per cent of the domestic milk demand.
The ministry of agriculture and rural development planned to increase the herd to 500,000 cows by 2020 to serve the people, Duong said.
The country has 130,000 cows, an increase of 22 per cent compared with the year 2000 but the milk production has recorded an increase of just 27 per cent.
Duong said Viet Nam did not have conducive conditions to raise cows like other countries, so it must concentrate on specific suitable areas where they could be raised.
The highlands of Lam Dong, Moc Chau and Ba Vi as well as the suburbs of Ha Noi and HCM City had been deemed the best places to raise dairy cows, said Duong, who urged people in other places not to try raising cows if their environment was not suitable for it.
With a herd of 1,600 dairy cows, Ba Vi, famous for its milk products, leads the province of Ha Tay in the number of dairy cows and its potential in contributing to the increase.
Ba Vi is the first place in Viet Nam where French colonialists used to raise their dairy in the early 20th century. They found it ideal to raise cows here as the climate and grass were both very good.
Duong said a local Ba Vi cow could produce up to 30 litres of milk per day.
"However, dairy farmers in Ba Vi also face problems in raising cows as they have limited knowledge as far as small-scale raising, collecting milk and hygienic process of milk production are concerned," Duong said.
District officials said they could not control what went on in private shops.
They said Ba Vi was famous for its milk product, so he did not want some home-made production that did not adhere to strict hygienic standards to spoil its reputation.
Recently, the district has worked with International Dairy Production Company (IDP) to build a trademark of Ba Vi Milk to enhance the reputation of the local product.
IDP Company has signed a contract to buy milk from local farmers and is also going to invest in the district’s dairy cow raising programme.
VNN
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