Livestock farmers wait wearily for support money after the epidemic
It has been 4 years since the outbreak of the disease, and livestock farmers in Nghe An are still waiting for post-epidemic support money. Many households have been forced to leave their barns empty.
"Empty-handed" due to the epidemic
Before the 2023 Lunar New Year, Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc in Trung Long hamlet, Thanh Linh commune, Thanh Chuong district hurriedly applied after hearing that he would receive support money for his family's destroyed pigs.
In 2021, African swine fever caused his family's 4 breeding boars and 1 sow, worth more than 200 million VND, to be infected and forced to be destroyed. A year later, he borrowed 50 million VND to re-raise the pigs. However, after raising them for 6 months, in July 2023, when the pigs were ready to be sold, his family continued to be "empty-handed" due to African swine fever.
Pig prices are increasing rapidly, I really want to raise pigs but I have run out of capital, in just a short time I lost hundreds of millions of dong, farmers like that are exhausted.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Trung Long hamlet, Thanh Linh commune, Thanh Chuong district
In just 3 years 2021-2023, Thanh Chuong district was forced to destroy a herd of pigs with a total weight of over 587,666 kg and the amount of support, according to statistics, amounted to more than 22,330 billion VND. In 2021, in the district, 467 buffaloes and cows were also destroyed due to lumpy skin disease.
According to Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, the epidemic has been basically controlled but the consequences are too severe. Re-herding is very difficult in the context that farmers' income mainly depends on agricultural production and livestock breeding.
"The district has directed communes and households affected by the epidemic to complete their documents to soon receive funding allocation, creating favorable conditions for investment in re-production," said Mr. Le Dinh Thanh.
In Hung Nguyen district, according to Ms. Ba Thi Dung - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development: In the two years 2021-2022, there were 1,493 pigs in the area that had to be destroyed due to African swine fever, with a total weight of more than 97,000 kg. The total support budget is more than 3,786 billion VND, of which more than 3,711 billion VND supports affected farmers and 74.6 million VND supports the cost of destruction.
As in other localities, after 4 years of the epidemic, livestock farmers in Hung Nguyen district have not yet received support money.
“That is also an important reason why the total livestock herd has decreased quite sharply. In 2020, the total pig herd of the district was 13,806, but now it is only 8,400. Although the price of live pigs has fluctuated recently, many people still abandon their pigs in their barns,” Ms. Ba Thi Dung shared.
When will farmers be supported?
Lumpy skin disease and African swine fever are new diseases that have appeared in our province in recent years, of which African swine fever appeared in 2019 and caused very heavy damage.
In 2019 and 2020, the Prime Minister issued two specific decisions regulating the mechanism, policies, support objects, and financial support levels in the prevention and control of African swine fever. Since then, Nghe An has paid 100% of the support costs to livestock owners whose pigs were infected and had to be destroyed, with an amount of more than 150 billion VND.
In 2021-2022, Nghe An had 2,400 buffaloes and cows forced to be destroyed due to lumpy skin disease. In addition, from 2021-2023, the whole province also had 707 outbreaks of African swine fever in 21 districts, cities and towns; 53,386 pigs had to be destroyed with a total weight of 3,046,971 kg. According to the support unit price stipulated in Decree 02 of 2017 of the Government, the total support budget is up to more than 115,784 billion VND.
However, according to Mr. Dang Van Minh, Head of the Provincial Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine: From 2021 onwards, not only Nghe An but also the whole country, the support money has not reached the hands of livestock farmers. The reason is that some regulations in Decree 02 have not been amended, these two new diseases have not been included in the list of subjects supported in the decree. In addition, the whole country has to concentrate all resources, struggling to fight the Covid-19 epidemic, so the policy has not been approved for implementation. Entering 2023, many localities have made recommendations on this issue, this is also the content discussed at the National Assembly forums.
Implementing the directives of the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on supporting livestock farmers affected by African swine fever and lumpy skin disease, on November 3, 2023, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Official Dispatch No. 9496 directing the implementation of completing the dossier to pay the support amount to livestock farmers.
Accordingly, direct support will be provided to livestock households whose livestock must be destroyed due to disease or in epidemic areas and must be destroyed.
Mr. Dang Van Minh said: The subjects eligible for support are pigs infected with African swine fever from January 1, 2021, buffaloes and cows infected with lumpy skin disease from September 27, 2021 to present. The support price is 38,000 VND/kg of live weight for pigs; 45,000 VND/kg of live weight for buffaloes and cows. Of which, 90% of the cost is supported by the Central Government, the remaining 10% is from the local budget.
Up to now, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine has completed the examination of the dossiers and submitted them to 12 units including: Thai Hoa Town, Nghia Dan, Cua Lo Town, Hoang Mai Town, Quy Chau, Nam Dan, Vinh City, Tuong Duong, Quynh Luu, Hung Nguyen, Quy Hop and Tan Ky. There are 8 districts that have submitted dossiers and are being examined at the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine: Dien Chau, Yen Thanh, Nghi Loc, Do Luong, Thanh Chuong, Anh Son, Que Phong, Ky Son and Con Cuong.
In addition to the difficulties for people in investing in herd restoration, the slow implementation of the policy also affects the work of disease prevention and control because farmers will easily hide the epidemic, sell it quickly, causing the disease to spread widely. The lack of timely support also limits the effectiveness and significance of the policy to support production recovery after the epidemic. Therefore, when the policy is implemented, it will be a driving force, supporting people to have the conditions to restore herds and develop livestock farming in the area.
Mr. Dang Van Minh - Head of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine of Nghe An province
