Hanoi (VNA) -Livestock farmers should join production links with cooperatives as well asprocessing and trading enterprises to sustain their livelihoods, experts saidat a conference in Hanoi on December 12.

The conference, organised by the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Food and AgricultureOrganisation (FAO), sought measures to enhance production and consumptionlinkages in the livestock industry.

Deputy head of the ministry’s Department ofLivestock Production, Nguyen Xuan Duong, said the concerted efforts madeearlier this year to “save the pigs” as the prices of live pigs dropped to arecord lows can only be a temporary measure.

The falling prices were chiefly attributed to weakproduction organisation of farmers, particularly in linking their productionwith the market, he said. Farmers were still basing their production onpersonal perceptions and not knowledge of supply-demand factors.

“Seeing an increase in pork prices, many farmersflocked to raising pigs, leading to oversupply and falling prices,” he said.

“This will be repeated if farmers do not joinproduction links between themselves, co-operatives and enterprises. And notonly pigs, but farmers could suffer losses with other produce such as cattleand chicken,” he said.

Establishing linkages would help farmers improvedisease prevention, hygiene and food safety, establish product origins,identify shortcomings in the whole production process and, most importantly,deal better with supply and demand issues, Duong added.

Vinod Ahuja, a policy expert from FAO in theAsia-Pacific region, said the pig crisis had great impacts on small-scalehouseholds. How to protect farmers from market shocks was a tough question, hesaid.

Ahuja suggested specific regulations be issuedon contracts and polices to protect farmers in cases of difficulties in themarket.

Farmers should have opportunities to join theprocess of information supply and decision making, he said.

Duong said policies were needed to ensurebenefits of all participants in the production links. At present, farmers oftensuffered losses while enterprises were always on the “safe side,” he noted.

Other speakers noted at the conference that manyproduction links had gained high economic efficiency, like those established bythe Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) and TH True MilkCorporation. These models helped many farmers become rich, they said.

Hoang Quang Vu, an expert with the Institute ofPolicy and Agricultural and Rural Development Strategy, said the institute hadstudied the efficiency of a number of production links in Vietnam for manyyears.

The Tan Thong Hoi Cooperative in HCM City, forexample, bought milk products from its members at a higher price than whatfarmers got from intermediaries. The cooperative then sold milk products todairy firms. "This link helps reduce risks for farmers," Vu said.

However, such models were still limited and thelinkages between farmers, cooperatives and enterprises remained low in thecountry, he added.-VNA