Farmer Lin Jinghong nurses a bamboo rat in Qinzhou city, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on July 24, 2019. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Bamboo rat breeders in southern China are keeping their packs alive while they wait for a final decision on the future of the business and details of compensation if the practice is banned.

Central authorities have pledged to compensate licensed breeders of "nonconventional species" following the imposition of a sweeping ban on wildlife consumption in February 

Central authorities have pledged to compensate licensed breeders of "nonconventional species" following the imposition of a sweeping ban on wildlife consumption in February due to concerns that such animals played a role in the spread of the novel coronavirus to humans.

The ban threatens to shake the economic pillars of some southern provinces, where favorable policies have promoted the breeding of nonconventional species and led to the formation of extensive industry chains.

In a circular issued on April 8, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration－the country's wildlife watchdog－urged local forestry authorities to conduct surveys on the scale of breeding and estimate breeders' potential losses if the practice is banned.

The administration said forestry authorities will help local governments work out reasonable compensation standards for licensed breeders, based on the number of animals they are raising, the species involved and their investment in breeding facilities. Support will also be provided to help farmers shift to other industries.

The circular was issued on the same day that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs－which oversees livestock raising－sought public opinion on a revised catalog of edible animal species.

The draft catalog lists 18 traditional livestock and poultry species (including pigs, cattle, chickens and ducks) and 13 special species, which exclude many nonconventional ones, including bamboo rats and snakes.

China used to allow consumption of noncataloged wildlife as long as the animals were raised with government approval.

But that window was closed after the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, decided in February to ban the consumption of nearly all wild animals falling outside the list, including the wild relatives of cataloged species. Aquatic wildlife is governed by the Fisheries Law and dealt with separately.

Public feedback on the exclusion of many nonconventional species from the draft catalog is being sought until May 8.

Many breeders are concerned it could spell the end of their operations. With details of compensation yet to be worked out, many are walking a fine line as they try to maintain some livestock without spending too much money.

Zhang Haiyou, who breeds bamboo rats in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region－a stronghold of rodent and snake breeding in Southwest China－said he has slashed feed by half over the past few months to save money while keeping 350 rats, and has separated female rats to prevent procreation.

"The compensation policies are murky, and I dare not let the pack grow," Zhang said.

It is a dilemma faced by tens of thousands of rat breeders in Guangxi.

Nine years ago Zhang left his home province of Heilongjiang－an old industrial base in Northeast China that has become a rust belt region－in search of business opportunities in Guangxi.

Zhang began breeding bamboo rats in 2015, opting for the species because a baby rat eats about 3 yuan ($0.42) worth of food a month but grows quickly and can fetch 500 yuan at the market in six months.

Now he's hoping to avoid bankruptcy.

"The priority for me at present is to keep them alive, and wait and see," he said.

The anxiety is shared by bigger breeders like Zheng Yanqing, whose rat cooperative in Shangrao, Jiangxi province, is scrambling to keep more than 3,000 rodents from starving.

Zheng said he will go bankrupt without compensation.

"I invested more than 1 million yuan in the cooperative, with a lot of money being bank loans," he said.

With details of the compensation yet to be ironed out, Zheng said he had no choice but to keep raising the rats, even if it meant spending 20,000 yuan a month on a pack whose consumption was likely to be outlawed soon.

"If I slaughter them on my own accord, I fear I won't get any repayment," he said.

Bamboo rats have up to four litters a year, and the pups can grow from 10 grams to 2 kilograms in six months, breeders say.

That has made them an ideal species to breed in rural mountain areas in South China, where the farming of pigs, cows and other large animals have proved difficult due to a lack of water and the high initial investment required.

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Liu Kejun, a senior livestock engineer at Guangxi's Animal Husbandry Research Institute, estimates there are about 36 million rats in captivity in Guangxi. The industry, with annual output worth 2.8 billion yuan, employs 182,000 people－one-fifth of them farmers who recently escaped poverty.

"After the NPC Standing Committee decided to impose the wildlife ban, I was inundated by phone calls asking me what they should do," he said.

The sheer number of animals being raised is also a headache for breeders－irrespective of compensation－especially for some potentially aggressive species like snakes, with local authorities banning their unsupervised release into the wild.

The National Forestry and Grassland Administration said in the April 8 circular that local authorities should take in such animals and release them in their natural habitats in line with the carrying capacity of the ecology.

Before that happens, the circular said, authorities should run tests on animal adaptability and determine how the release could affect the local ecology.

For animals bred in huge numbers, provincial authorities could make arrangements for them to be released in other provinces.

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The authorities should accelerate administrative approval for using such animals in medicine or for ornamental purposes to reduce stocks, the circular said, adding that exotic species must be handed over to licensed shelters.

Animals that cannot be released into the wild, used in other ways or sent to shelters should be slaughtered to protect local ecologies, it said.