Why is the nutrient return rate of livestock and poultry manure to fields in China less than 50%?

Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin said on the 23rd that due to the massive use of chemical fertilizers, insufficient rural environmental protection investment and other factors, composting is becoming increasingly rare in rural areas, and the nutrient return rate of livestock and poultry manure to fields in China is now below 50%.

Speaking at the “2015 International Composting Conference and the 10th National Composting Technology and Engineering Seminar” held here, Zhang Taolin said that composting technology is a key technology for the comprehensive utilization of agricultural waste and plays an important role in improving the utilization rate of agricultural resources, improving the quality of the ecological environment, and achieving circular agriculture and sustainable development. In the 1950s to 1970s, composting was still commonly practiced in rural China, and organic waste such as human and livestock manure, crop straw, and even hoed weeds in rural areas was composted and returned to the fields. But over the past 30 years, due to the massive use of chemical fertilizers, insufficient rural environmental protection investment, and the transfer and structural shortage of rural labor, composting has become increasingly rare in rural areas, so that the nutrient return rate of livestock and poultry manure to fields in China is now below 50%, and the problem of cultivated land degradation, such as the decline of soil organic matter and the weakening of fertility, has become increasingly prominent in some areas.

As for how to give play to the role of composting technology in achieving circular and sustainable agricultural development in the future, Zhang Taolin said that it is necessary to draw on international experience and practices, base ourselves on China's national and agricultural conditions, and better give play to the irreplaceable role of composting technology in cleaner agricultural production, especially in agricultural energy conservation and emission reduction, low-carbon agriculture, and rural environmental construction.

This conference was hosted by China Agricultural University and China Composting Network, and was the first international composting conference held in China.