How to Tackle Livestock and Poultry Farming Pollution? Pathways and Countermeasures Analyzed

As people's living standards continue to rise, the demand for livestock and poultry products has also increased year by year. The development of the livestock and poultry farming industry has played an important role in guaranteeing the supply of livestock and poultry products in urban and rural areas, promoting farmers' income growth, and invigorating the rural economy.

⟦NL> However, the resulting pollutant emissions have also increased substantially. According to the 2013 annual verification and accounting results for the reduction of major pollutants by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, in 2013 the chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions from the national livestock and poultry farming industry reached 10.7194 million tons and 604,800 tons respectively, accounting for 45.56% and 24.62% of the national total emissions respectively. Livestock and poultry farming has become an important source of environmental pollution, especially water environmental pollution.

On November 14, 2012, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly formulated and issued the "National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Livestock and Poultry Farming Pollution during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan Period" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). On November 11, 2013, the State Council promulgated the "Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Large-Scale Livestock and Poultry Farming" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which came into effect on January 1, 2014. The issuance and implementation of these laws and plans will certainly play a positive role in the healthy and sustainable development of the livestock and poultry farming industry.

However, despite the existing legal and policy framework, doing a good job in the prevention and control of pollution from the livestock and poultry farming industry is still fraught with difficulties.

First, a working mechanism for coordinated governance among various departments has not yet taken shape. Although the "Regulations" have clarified the functions and responsibilities of each department, because the methods and means of assessment have not yet been specified, it is difficult to provide effective incentives and constraints for the relevant departments, resulting in the responsibility for livestock and poultry farming pollution control in some areas still falling entirely or mostly on the environmental protection departments, creating a situation in which the environmental protection departments perform a one-man show.

For example, the goal set in the "Plan" is that by 2015, the national situation of livestock and poultry farming pollution will be basically ascertained. The achievement of this goal must rely on the support and cooperation of the agriculture and animal husbandry departments. However, as of now, the situation of livestock and poultry farming pollution in most provinces is still unclear, and on-site inspections often reveal large discrepancies between the actual number of livestock raised at farms and the data provided by the agriculture and animal husbandry departments.

Second, there is a lack of measures to guarantee the operation of already-built pollution control facilities. In recent years, the state has effectively promoted the construction of livestock and poultry farming pollution control facilities through the implementation of multiple policy measures such as central special environmental protection fund projects and central rural environmental protection special fund projects. However, effective operational guarantee measures are noticeably lacking, and many already-built treatment facilities cannot maintain normal operation over the long term or even do not operate at all.

For example, most small and medium-sized organic fertilizer plants that have not entered the crop-livestock integration industry chain operate at a long-term loss and cannot function normally. In my work, I have found that although value-added tax exemptions and other subsidy policies are implemented for the production, sale and use of organic fertilizer, because the price of organic fertilizer is noticeably higher than that of chemical fertilizer and its use is more laborious than chemical fertilizer and its fertilizer effect is slower, growers are more inclined to choose chemical fertilizer.

For another example, in northern China, due to problems such as non-standard management, unstable gas output, difficulty in insulating facilities, and safety hazards, biogas comprehensive utilization projects commonly vent biogas directly into the air or burn it directly, and are basically in a shut-down state in winter.

Third, regional differences were not fully considered in the policy-making process. China has a vast territory, and different regions differ greatly in natural climate conditions, economic development status, farming scale and other aspects. However, current policy-making, task assignment and funding support are basically "one-size-fits-all," without fully considering regional differences, resulting in different assessment pressures and financial burdens felt by different regions in carrying out livestock and poultry farming pollution control work, and completely different pollution control results from the same amount of effort.

For example, compare Heilongjiang Province and Zhejiang Province. Heilongjiang has severe cold in winter and a long freezing period, relatively flat terrain and a large area of cultivated land. Its economic development is relatively lagging, and in 2013 the province's fiscal revenue was 127.74 billion yuan. Its livestock and poultry farming scale is large and pollutant emissions are high, with 1.0351 million tons of chemical oxygen demand discharged in 2013. Zhejiang Province, located in the Jiangnan region, is warm and humid, with terrain dominated by mountains and hills, crisscrossing waterways, and a small area of cultivated land. Its economic development is relatively fast, and in 2013 the province's fiscal revenue was 379.692 billion yuan, three times that of Heilongjiang Province. Its livestock and poultry farming scale is small and pollutant emissions are low, with 17.39 tons of chemical oxygen demand discharged in 2013, less than one-fifth of Heilongjiang Province's emissions. Although the two provinces differ greatly in all aspects, the state shows no obvious difference between them in setting the proportion of livestock and poultry farms with pollution control facilities built and the proportion of total pollutant emissions to be reduced, in recommending pollution control processes, and in funding subsidies.

Fourth, supervision and law enforcement capacity is seriously insufficient. For a long time, environmental protection departments have mainly focused their work energy on supervising urban industrial enterprises, and the management mechanism for large-scale farming enterprises has only just been straightened out. Faced with the large number and wide distribution of livestock and poultry farmers, environmental protection departments face practical difficulties in law enforcement and supervision, such as insufficient law enforcement personnel, an unclear baseline of livestock and poultry farming, a lack of supervision and law enforcement equipment, inconvenient transportation conditions, and no binding measures against farmers.