Vietnam pork sector study featured in New Agriculturist

A collaborative study led by ILRI's Markets Opportunities theme to map the supply chains for pigs and pork products in Vietnam is featured in the January 2010 issue of the online bimonthly newsletter New Agriculturist.

The project, Improving the competitiveness of pig producers in an adjusting Vietnam market, is aimed at generating research evidence to inform policymakers on the appropriate policy, technological and institutional frameworks that will allow Vietnam's smallholder pig producers to competitively increase their incomes through enhanced access to market chains for high-value pork products.

"Smallholders could play a much greater role in pork production but there is a need to generate appropriate technologies to maximize the potential of these systems, to improve the breeds and to provide better and more cost-efficient feed rations," the article quotes Lucy Lapar, a scientist with ILRI's Market Opportunities theme scientist and the coordinator of the project.

The project is due to end in March 2010 but it is hoped that the outputs of the study will be taken up by policymakers and sector stakeholders to inform dialogue towards formulation of pro-poor policies in support of Vietnam's smallholder pig producers.

The project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in collaboration with the Centre for Agricultural Policy - Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Development (CAP-IPSARD), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Oxfam and the University of Queensland.

Here's the link to the New Agriculturist article, Vietnam: taking a pig to market.