Environmental pollution treatment in livestock farming

(Baonghean) - With the largest livestock herd in the country, the number of farms and ranches in our province is very large, but environmental treatment in livestock farming still has many shortcomings. That causes environmental pollution, disease outbreaks in livestock and poultry as well as affects the living environment of humans.

Receiving land in 2001, Mr. Phan Nguyen Kieu in Hamlet 2, Hung Dao Commune (Hung Nguyen) focused on investing in building pig pens, digging fish ponds to make a farm. Currently, in the 2.1 hectare farm, there are often 1,000 - 1,500 ducks, 70 - 100 pigs, and several hundred chickens. Every day, the amount of waste from these livestock is quite large, but up to now, Mr. Kieu's farm still does not have a biogas tank or a waste treatment system. "The land has not been granted stable use rights, so I have not dared to invest much. The waste of pigs, chickens and ducks is all discharged into the pond to feed the fish or collected in a pit, left to rot for a long time and then used as fertilizer, so the bad smell is inevitable" - Mr. Kieu confided. Hung Dao commune has 6 farms and 30 households. According to Mr. Le Van Thanh (officer of the commune's Agriculture Department), most of these farms are spontaneous and have unsustainable investment. No farm has built a biogas tank to treat waste, but is still "manually" discharging directly into ponds. Some farms and households even discharge directly into the environment, causing pollution.

The whole district of Hung Nguyen has 480 farms and ranches, of which 78 farms meet the criteria. The number of farms and ranches is large, but there are still many shortcomings in environmental treatment. Farmers have not really "caught up" in the shift from small-scale, purely manual farming to industrial farming. However, because it is not really urgent and has not been inspected and punished, households have not yet taken seriously the proper treatment of waste in livestock farming. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Truong (Head of the District's Agriculture Department), to solve this problem, in the short term, it is necessary to have a process of treatment with microbiological chemicals and deodorization as a few farms in the area have applied. In the long term, it is necessary to have a centralized treatment area according to the planning.

Pig farm in Hung Dao (Hung Nguyen).

Nghe An has a large area with potential and favorable conditions for livestock development. Currently, our province is one of the localities with the largest livestock herd in the country with over 1 million pigs, 17 million poultry, nearly 800 thousand buffaloes and cows. However, there are still many shortcomings in the livestock farming method, especially the issue of environmental treatment has not been really taken seriously. In many places, the situation of environmental pollution in livestock farming is increasingly complicated, not only in small-scale livestock households but also in some farms and livestock facilities, this problem has not been completely resolved. With the largest livestock and poultry herd in the country, the treatment and management of waste in livestock farming is very difficult.

In fact, waste is mainly treated by measures such as direct discharge into canals, ponds, composting as fertilizer for crops or treatment with biogas technology and recently, large-scale farms have used additional biological bedding methods in pig and chicken farming. According to Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoa (Head of Livestock Department - Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province), measures such as composting as fertilizer, building aeration tanks and using biological bedding solve the problem of pollution, while creating other products for production. However, these models are not many compared to the livestock farm system in the area, the direct discharge of livestock waste into canals, ponds causing environmental pollution is still common.

Farms discharge large amounts of untreated waste daily and dump it directly into the drainage system and canals, causing a shortage of domestic water. Many people suffer from diarrhea, rashes and scabies due to polluted water sources. Not only that, environmental pollution in livestock farming also "contributes" to the persistent existence of diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease, blue ear disease, avian influenza, etc. in many localities in the province.

In fact, in recent years, livestock farming in our province has increasingly developed in the direction of farms, focusing on commodity production. However, from the beginning, we lacked specific livestock planning, leading to the situation where many livestock farms and slaughterhouses are located in residential areas, on home gardens, land purchased or rented locally, causing environmental pollution, disease risks for livestock and humans, and greatly affecting the sustainable development of the livestock industry. Small-scale, fragmented production, scattered distribution while agricultural production has low profits, unstable prices, and unstable markets lead to low investment in environmental treatment in the livestock sector and many difficulties. In addition, people's awareness of law compliance is not high. There are still widespread cases of arbitrary livestock farming, trading, and slaughtering, where livestock are not declared sick, sick livestock are slaughtered, and carcasses are dumped haphazardly, negatively affecting the environment and consumer health. In this situation, the implementation of legal documents from the provincial to local levels is still lacking in uniformity, and the specialized inspection force in the field of environmental protection is lacking due to the large area of ​​operation and the large number of production and business activities in the area. Awareness of all levels, sectors, localities, and the whole society in general about environmental protection in livestock farming activities is not appropriate, and there is no specific action.

Obviously, the development of the livestock industry without waste treatment measures will affect the living environment and vice versa, directly impacting the health of livestock, causing epidemics, causing difficulties in disease management. Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoa said: In the coming time, we will gradually shift from small-scale, dispersed livestock farming to developing concentrated industrial livestock farming, farms, and family farms, supporting household livestock farming in the form of industry, applying appropriate techniques and technologies. Gradually shift livestock farming from high population density areas in the plains to low population density areas in the midlands and mountainous areas, forming livestock farming areas far from cities and residential areas. At the same time, encourage the application of high technology, organize closed production or link between stages, minimize environmental pollution and ensure food safety and hygiene. Accordingly, in addition to technical and breeding solutions, one of the issues that needs to be focused on in the coming time is that the construction of barns must comply with regulations, be separated from residential areas, and livestock development planning must be associated with environmental protection, creating favorable conditions for borrowing capital for organizations and individuals investing in production and construction of biogas works.

Phu Huong