BEIJING — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on March 7 that more will be done to ensure that the country's livestock and poultry businesses will meet their output and supply targets this year despite the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Since the outbreak, measures taken by related authorities have boosted production resumption and helped firms in accessing feed and finding buyers, Han Changfu, minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, told a video conference on coordinating and boosting livestock and poultry production in south China.

Animal husbandry businesses showed positive changes with feed supply basically secured, poultry inventory reduced and livestock production recovery gaining momentum, Han said.

Next, local authorities should attach great importance to production of livestock and poultry in order to increase supply of meat products and timely address acute problems regarding production and transport with unconventional measures, so as to make up for the production capacity loss and minimize the impact of the epidemic, according to a statement released after the meeting.

The meeting also highlighted facilitating poultry sales with efforts including orderly reopening live poultry markets and expanding hog production by speeding up the construction of production capacity expansion projects and supporting small and medium-sized producers in scaling up output.

Targeted policies will be introduced to incentivize hog and poultry farming, while prevention and control measures will be beefed up against animal diseases including bird flu and African swine fever.