Vietnam plans to pour some 42.1 million U.S. dollars in improving its fowl-breeding scale and practice in the 2006-2010 period, local newspaper Pioneer on Tuesday quoted a state agriculture agency as saying.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has just completed a scheme on zoning poultry breeding nationwide with focus on establishing more large-scale farms and slaughterhouses with estimated cost of 670 billion Vietnamese dong (42.1 million U. S. dollars), said the ministry's Animal Husbandry Department.

Under the scheme, the current small animal husbandry scale and the old practice of raising fowls freely in fields and canals will be minimized, while operation of large-scale poultry farms and modern slaughterhouses, and application of scientific advancements in strains, feeds and veterinary medicines promoted.

By implementing the scheme, Vietnam's fowl raising sector can post production value of around 20 trillion VND (over 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2010, the department said.

Vietnam had a total poultry population of 254 million by late 2002, and it annually grew by an average of 6.5 percent. Bird flu outbreaks starting in the country in late 2003 killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls.

Source: Xinhua