Influence of the industrialization of pig farming on the diversification of mixed livestock integration in Vietnam

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, pig farming systems in Vietnam have evolved toward more intensive systems, which have been in the process of industrialization since the 2010s. Farmers are increasingly using technologies and services from the agribusiness. This transformation of pork workshops makes it possible to increase meat production but it questions the traditional integration of crop and livestock within farms. Through a historical and geographical approach, this article shows that, even in a process of industrialization of the pig sector, mixed livestock production continues. In 2011, more than 90% of pig farms included at least one complementary agricultural activity. However, the transformation of livestock systems is leading to a diversification of forms of integration. The new systems tend to organize themselves around the management of effluents to develop agricultural workshops with higher added value, or on the economic complementarity between which risks to take in the face of market uncertainty, at the expense of fodder or livestock feed production on the farm.