Livestock farming needs to develop on an industrial scale with high productivity and substantial output, focusing more on professionalized and organic farming under the circular economy model, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien has said.

“It is also important to establish livestock concentration areas away from residential areas, which makes environmental management and disease control more convenient,” he told the “Platform for the best available environment practice in livestock commercial farms for circular agriculture” conference on November 1.

Such practices are crucial to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

The livestock industry has been affecting the environment, he continued, and unless waste is better controlled it will emit nearly 15 million tons of carbon dioxide every year.

It is estimated that Vietnam’s livestock industry discharges an average of 61 million tons of manure and over 304 million cu m of wastewater into the environment each year.

The industry contributes 25-26 per cent to the agriculture sector every year and has been one of the fastest-growing agricultural subsectors, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the past ten years it has maintained annual growth of 4.5-6 per cent.