Vietnam’s Ha Tinh Province is accelerating the declaration and registration of identification codes for livestock production facilities, aiming to standardize livestock management data, strengthen disease prevention and control, and facilitate production, traceability and trade.
Standardizing data to improve livestock management
Under Plan No. 695/KH-UBND, issued by the provincial People’s Committee on 4 October 2026, the Ha Tinh Department of Agriculture and Environment has organized a conference to provide guidance on the pilot process for declaring livestock production activities and registering facility identification codes on the National Database System for the 2026–2027 period.
Ha Tinh is one of three provinces selected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to implement the pilot program across their entire administrative areas, alongside Quang Ninh and Tay Ninh.
According to Tran Hung, Head of the Ha Tinh Sub-Department of Crop Production and Livestock Production, the program aims not merely to collect initial information but also to establish a centralized, unified and regularly updated database that accurately reflects livestock production activities.
As livestock populations and the number of production facilities fluctuate regularly, digitalization is expected to give relevant authorities a more comprehensive picture of the province’s livestock sector.
Standardized and regularly updated information on production facilities, herd sizes and farming activities will support statistical reporting, livestock population monitoring and timely disease prevention and control.
For livestock producers, identification codes and standardized data are also expected to facilitate procedures related to production, herd management and trade.
Having consistent information will make it easier to identify facilities, retrieve records and coordinate with relevant authorities, while reducing fragmented data and repeated declarations.
Le Dinh Hue, Head of the Central Region Sub-Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, said the declaration and identification code registration system would help stakeholders take a more proactive approach to livestock production, trading and management.
However, obtaining an identification code does not exempt livestock facilities from quarantine requirements, which must still be fulfilled in accordance with current regulations.
Accelerating implementation, with priority given to large-scale farms
Under the implementation roadmap, Ha Tinh aims to complete declarations and identification code registration for 100% of large-scale livestock farms in 2026.
The province also targets completing declarations for at least 70% of medium-scale farms, 60% of small-scale farms, and eligible facilities and households raising spotted deer and pigs.
For the remaining eligible household livestock operations, the target is to achieve a declaration rate of at least 50%.
Any outstanding cases will continue to be addressed under the roadmap, with completion expected before 30 June 2027.
For dogs and cats, the province will initially focus on reviewing and cross-checking existing livestock management and rabies vaccination records, while guiding owners through the declaration process.
No separate identification code registration target has been set for these animals in 2026.
However, implementation remains behind schedule. As of 23 October 2026, all 69 communes and wards across the province had appointed focal-point officials and received accounts to support the rollout.
Nevertheless, only 10 communes and wards had organized training sessions or issued implementation plans and guidance.
Meanwhile, 132 livestock production facilities across 37 communes and wards had registered to submit declarations through the system.
A substantial amount of work remains, involving nearly 20,000 pig-raising households and more than 10,000 spotted deer-raising households, in addition to other livestock operations subject to declaration and identification code registration requirements.
Localities with relatively large numbers of medium- and large-scale farms, including Son Tien, Co Dam, Tien Dien, Toan Luu, Cam Lac, Ky Xuan, Son Kim 1, Duc Dong, Son Tay and Nam Hong Linh Ward, need to mobilize resources to meet the implementation targets.
Ensuring accurate, consistent and usable data
One of the main challenges is that livestock facility records remain fragmented and are subject to frequent changes.
Many households lack suitable devices, do not have email addresses or are unfamiliar with using digital software.
Meanwhile, differences in the level of initiative and implementation progress among localities could prolong the declaration process and undermine data consistency.
According to Le Dinh Hue, the database must meet six criteria: accurate, complete, clean, live, consistent and shared.
To achieve this, technical officials need to work closely with local authorities, livestock producers and digital transformation teams to ensure that information is fully declared, verified before being uploaded and updated whenever production activities change.
Local authorities should prioritize reviewing and compiling lists of livestock facilities by village and residential area, classifying them according to farm size and livestock species.
They should also identify facilities that are currently operating, have ceased operations, already have records or require additional information or corrections.
Existing data can be reused, but must be cross-checked against actual conditions to avoid duplicate records or the uploading of unverified information to the national system.
In addition, personnel involved in implementation need to be equipped with relevant knowledge of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, as well as the digital skills required to provide direct guidance to livestock producers.
Issues involving user accounts, access permissions, software operations and technical errors must also be addressed promptly through coordination among relevant stakeholders.
Accelerating declarations and identification code registration for livestock production facilities in Ha Tinh therefore needs to go hand in hand with rigorous data quality control.
This will gradually establish an integrated management system to support disease surveillance, improve traceability and lay the groundwork for a more transparent, safe and efficient livestock sector.