International Journal of Poultry Science1682-83561994-7992Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/ijps.2014.292.298WangLibin LiuQiming ZhengHong E. WuJin LiXiaoyun 52014135The poultry sector is important for the livelihoods of rural
people in China. Under increased public concerns on bio-security, how to integrate
the small scale poultry producers into safe and high value production chains
is a key political issue in many developing countries. In this context, China
initiated a model of building poultry production clusters (PPCs) and moving
small producers into the clusters so as to increase the scale of production
as well as bio-security. It was considered an innovative model in China and
the government issued various policies to promote this model since 2003. However,
the model failed after a couple of years of practice. This paper reviews the
social, economic and political elements of this endeavor and the impacts of
PPCs in China. The main reason for the failure is that, without external authority,
the small producers were fated into the dilemma of collection actions, which
means that each individual will maximize individual interest with the expense
of the public interest. The failure of PPCs supports the previous research results
in that as income growth and urbanization increases consumer demand for food
safety, the small producers could not meet those high food safety standards
and the government has limited capacities to work with millions of small producers
to encourage them to follow the same production standards. The political commitment
to control transmissible disease outbreaks was given higher priority than the
commitment to small producer development since it was difficult for the government
to balance the two.]]>Delgado, C., M. Rosegrant, H. Steinfeld, S. Ehui and C. Courbois,19991999Deng, R.,2003183642Jiang, F.,2006422526Kristjanson, P., N. Mango, A. Krishna, M. Radeny and N. Johnson,201022978996Leng, A., S. Lv and Y. Shi,200781314Li., C.,201041618Lin, R.,20011366667Lin, J.Y.,199722201212Liu, X.,20023834McDermott, J.J., S.J. Staal, H.A. Freeman, M. Herrero and J.A. Van de Steeg,201013095109Park, A., S. Wang and G. Wu,200286123153Perry, B.D., T.F. Randolph, S. Ashley, R. Chimedza and A. Forman et al.,20032003Ren, Q.,2008111517Staal, S.J.,20012001Stur, W., T.T. Khanh and A. Duncan,201311363381Tarawali, S., M. Herrero, K. Descheemaeker, E. Grings and M. Blummel,20111391121