The Administrative Measures for the Filing of Livestock and Poultry Farms was announced on July 11 by China’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Han Jun.
Officials from the Department of Policies and Regulations and the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) met with the press on July 15 to clarify the rationale behind these new measures.
The officials noted that the current system depended on region, making it inconsistent with and hard to manage on a national level.
The new measures standardise the process across the country to better track and manage large-scale livestock and poultry farms.
“The measures unify national standards and procedures for farm scale and filing, laying a foundation for classified management and scientific policy support, helping accelerate the construction of a modern livestock and poultry farming system, and further ensuring stable supply and quality safety of livestock and poultry products in China.”
This supports modern farming practices, improves food safety, and strengthens China’s ability to manage the livestock sector.
New measure details
According to MARA, the new measures apply to farms that raise animals listed in the National Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Directory at fixed locations and meet defined scale thresholds must file their operations with local agricultural authorities.
Once approved, farms receive a livestock and veterinary production and operation entity code—a unique ID linked to China’s central livestock industry information platform.
This “one farm, one code” system facilitates better integration of production data, disease monitoring, and regulatory oversight, said the officials.
“This unified coding promotes data sharing across farming, epidemic prevention, and quarantine processes, enabling interconnected livestock and veterinary information and integrated supervision and monitoring.”
With these new measures, farms are expected to report livestock numbers and output through an online platform.
According to MARA officials, farms that do not file these numbers will be penalised under the Animal Husbandry Law.
The officials note that filing is not a prerequisite for establishing a farm and is not considered an administrative licence.
Only a filing form and a site photo or layout are required, ensuring that the process is streamlined to reduce the burden on farmers.
Furthermore, farms already registered under existing provincial systems that meet the new standards will not need to re-file.
MARA will be responsible for nationwide filing management of both livestock and poultry farms.
On the other hand, the local agriculture departments will be responsible for filings, inspections, and supervision.
With these new measures, the national ministry will oversee the overarching system while local agriculture departments will handle filings, inspections, and supervision.
Moving forward, MARA will support the roll out with training for local authorities, release scale standards for different animal types, and promote timely reporting of inventory and output.
