Shandong eyes boost to pig farming with new measures

East China's Shandong province is taking multiple measures to boost the pig-farming industry, including providing direct subsidies to stabilize the inventory of breeding sows, offering discounts on loan interest, giving subsidies for expanding and renovating sizable pig farms, and raising the insured amount of the agricultural insurance, according to the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine Bureau of Shandong.

The province is expected to spend a total of 500 million yuan on carrying out these measures.

Over 65 million yuan has been used to ease the cost of pig feed and materials for disease prevention in 45 sizable breeding sow farms in the province during the past five months.

The province has carried out a favorable animal husbandry and veterinary loan to provide easy access for pig raisers who expand farms to get loans with favorable interest.

Policies on ensuring land use for pig farms and streamlining approval procedures for environmental protection evaluation for major pig farmers have also been implemented, said Tang Jianjun, head of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine Bureau of Shandong.

Tang said no fees will be charged on reclaiming the land for raising pigs.

Some cities in Shandong are also taking special measures to boost pig production. Jining has allocated a fund of 3 million yuan to subsidize breeding sow production for two years.