Special Report: Rural Development

Ding Xuanbao, a farmer in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, believes the national dairy development program has provided him with a cash cow.

Under the program, launched by the Ministry of Agriculture before the start of the 11th Five-Year Plan, Ding has reared more than 20 buffalo on his farm in Lingshan County.

"Buffalo are no longer needed in farm work because they have been replaced by machines, so we rear them for milk or meat," said Ding. "I think I can make at least 50,000 yuan (6,165 U.S. dollars) from the herd this year."

The per capita net income of farmers in Guangxi was 2,490 yuan last year.

The buffalo dairy industry is the development focus of the government's 11th Five-Year Development Plan (2006-2010) and Long-Term Goals Until 2020 for the dairy Industry.

Under the program, Ding and his fellow villagers are offered free services, including inoculations, disinfection and propagation.

Buffalo farmers also get free pasture seed and an electric weedmower, as well as credit support from government organizations if they are short of operating funds.

China's buffalo population still had room to grow by another 50million, most of them in the humid area south of the Yellow River,said Yang Bingzhuang, head of the Guangxi Buffalo Institute of theChinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Milk output is expected to be 22.4 million tons by 2010, to meet rising demand. Per capita consumption of dairy products is expected to be 16 kg a year, compared to 5.5 kg in 2000.

The arid northern regions currently produce 80 percent of China's dairy output, but serious environmental degradation means they can no longer sustain production, said Zhang Xinshi, a memberof the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Zhang believed the national development program would prevent environmental degradation in the north and improve food security.

"More dairy buffalo would improve the structure of China's dairy industry," said Zhang.

An overwhelming majority of the world's buffalo are raised in Asia. Out of the 168 million buffalo raised in Asia last year, 22.36 million were reared in China south of the Yellow River.

Chen Ronggui, a buffalo specialist with Guangxi Autonomous Regional Bureau of Aquatic Products and Animal Husbandry, said they had been working hard to provide farmers with technical skills in buffalo husbandry.

"We will import quality cross-bred buffalo from the international market and help farmers make money from them," said Chen.

Professor Luigi Zicarelli, chairman of the International Buffalo Federation (IBF), predicted China would produce more quality buffalo milk if the country could improve husbandry technologies and management.

China already exports a small amount of buffalo dairy produce to southeast Asian countries.