Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
HO CHI MINH CITY , Nov 14 2005 (IPS) – As Vietnam prepares a national anti-bird flu strategy that involves ruthless culling of suspect fowl, experts are concerned it could spell ruination for many small farmers.
A ban on poultry farming in towns and cities ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on Oct. 26, to prevent further outbreaks in urban areas, has already hit small farmers hard.
The fact that Vietnam is traditionally an agrarian nation is hindering efforts to control the virus. For generations, households have raised fowl in backyards for additional income, a practice now being seen as adding greatly to bird flu risk.
Any thought of mercy was quelled by reports, on Saturday, of an outbreak in the northern seaport of Hai Phong, just as scientists at the Molecular Biology Department of the Pasteur Institute, Vietnam s main centre for bird flu research, said the deadly H5N1 influenza virus had mutated into a strain that could be passed among mammals.
That news has prompted authorities to speed up preventive measures, including stepping up epidemic surveillance, providing timely treatment to infected people and, most importantly, culling risky birds.
What should I do with my flock of 2,000 ducks raised for the coming festive season? lamented Nguyen Bui, 36, who lives in Cu Chi district, HCM City. Bui told IPS he had already got his ducks vaccinated against avian flu to sell them at yearend and, in view of the new regulations, he was being compelled to smuggle the birds into the city to be sold.
Feathered birds (live ducks and chickens) are still in high demand, and I could sell them easily to vendors at makeshift markets, Bui said confidently.
But Nguyen Tat Thanh, who also owns a small farm at Cu Chi, is not so clever or resourceful. We don t know how to make a living once our flocks are destroyed, the farmer told IPS.
Thanh s family used to earn more than 300,000 VN Dong (nearly two US dollars) a day from their 800 laying ducks and 150 chickens. But now with the Oct. 26 requirement that small farmers destroy their flocks, he must start looking for a job. We must sell the farm since there is no way for us to raise poultry for sale, Thanh said.
Le Thi Hang, from Gia Lam district of Hanoi, is also worried by the huge loss she would suffer under the city s plans to begin destroying the entire poultry flock in the inner city from Thursday. Compensation is slow to come and could hardly help us set up another trade to make a living, Hang said.
Elsewhere, farmers, whose livelihoods depend on poultry farming, are calling on the government to increase compensation for culling birds. At a meeting with the MARD officials last week, Le Dac Ta, a delegate from the northern province of Bac Giang, said that 15,000 VND (almost one dollar) per bird in compensation to farmers was too low.
Bac Giang, Thanh Hoa and Quang Nam are among the hardest hit provinces, where thousands of birds have been slaughtered following the outbreak.
Last year, I was forced to cull 250 of my healthy chickens, each one worth 50,000 VND (3.2 dollars); the government gave me only 15,000 VND (nearly one dollar) for each culled bird. That was a great loss for my family, Thanh said.
Bird flu has been reported recently from Hai Phong, Hung Yen, Hai Duong and Ninh Binh in the the north, bringing to ten the number of provinces in Vietnam affected by the virus.
The government has already spent 100 million dollars helping farmers cope with the disease. It has slaughtered 45 million poultry so far, mainly last year, paying farmers one dollar per chicken, which is less than a third of the market price.
Louise Fresco, a top official with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was quoted as saying: The backyard chicken is the big problem and the fight against bird flu must be waged in the backyard of the world s poor.
To wage this fight, MARD vice minister Bui Ba Bong told a conference on a global strategy against the H5N1 virus in Geneva, last week, that Vietnam urgently needed 50 million dollars in aid, for 2005-2006, and another 100 million dollars by 2010 to step up control and detection.
Vietnam was ready to spend about 350 million dollars, making a total investment of 500 million dollars, Bong told delegates at the conference organised by the Word Health Organisation, the FAO, the World Bank and the World Organisation for Animal Health (known as the OIE).
So far, Vietnam has received 10 million dollars in technical assistance and financial support from bilateral and multilateral donors, including the United States, China and the Netherlands.
Presently, we lack facilities and medicines we need 1,000 respirators, one million doses of Tamiflu, disinfectants, sprayers and quarantine equipment, said Health Deputy Minister Trinh Quan Huan.
Huan believes that what is most challenging is the establishment of an effective information and surveillance network: some localities appeared to be too slow in preparing for possible outbreaks.
For their part, health workers complain of a lack of resources necessary to treat both humans and animals should an epidemic occur. The province has given us (some) money to eradicate bird flu in the commune, but not enough to really complete the work, said Nguyen Van, who was in charge of a health care station at Cai Giuoc commune, Long An province.
Van said many farmers have only superficial knowledge of bird flu-many still believe their small-scale poultry farming is better protected from the virus than large-scale, factory production.
Asking these small farmers to cull their healthy birds, valued almost 3.5 dollars each, and to receive one-third of the market price as compensation is not easy.
Since chicken and duck dishes remain popular, farmers like Bui manage to make illegal sales in the urban areas, although customers think twice before ordering their favorite raw blood pudding. Local newspapers report that, in HCM City, daily supply has now fallen from 50,000 to 30,000 fowls.
Officials are proposing higher compensation for culled birds. We urge that the state increase the compensation so that farmers won t suffer great losses and will act to voluntarily destroy their poultry, Ta said.
By end November, no one in HCM City and Hanoi will be allowed to keep poultry or pet birds and birds will be quarantined before being allowed into the metropolises and may be slaughtered only by licensed businesses.
Hoang Kim Giao, MARD deputy director, said a plan to encourage farmers to diversify to other products has been submitted to the government. Small-scale farmers who keep fewer than 200 birds will be helped with three-year, no-interest loans, Giao said.
With the loans and the sale of our farm, maybe we could rent a pond to raise shrimp, Thanh of Cu Chi said. He hopes shrimp would be safe from epidemic diseases.
