Tsao Chi-hung's First Battle at the Legislative Yuan: Hopes to Make the Pig Farming Industry a Dignified Profession

Today (the 30th) marks the first time that newly appointed Council of Agriculture Minister Tsao Chi-hung took questions at the Economics Committee of the Legislative Yuan, and also the first time he formally set out his vision for agricultural policy to the public. Yet beyond being besieged by legislators over whether to open Taiwan to imports of US pork, he also put forward quite a few concrete aspirations for the pig farming industry: "I have always hoped to make the pig farming industry a dignified profession."

The main direction at present is to guide 100 operators within one year to use biogas for power generation. Lee Chun-chin, director of the Department of Animal Industry, said there are many ways to use biogas for power generation, and not everyone has to spend heavily to do it: "Whether pig farmers are willing to do it is the most crucial thing." Tsao Chi-hung also promised to work to speed up Taiwan's removal from the foot-and-mouth disease affected area and to help with the export of carcass pork.

Guiding 100 livestock farms a year to generate power from biogas

When biogas power generation is mentioned, the most common image is large red biogas bags, fitted with various desulfurizers, reaction tanks and sedimentation ponds, at no small cost. Even the Central Livestock Farm, which won the Shennong Award last year (2015), had to spend 40 million to achieve an annual return of 3 million.

But Lee Chun-chin, director of the Department of Animal Industry, said there are quite diverse ways to use biogas. Large-scale investment like that of the Central Livestock Farm, used to generate power for sale to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Taipower) or for self-use, is only one of them; there are other simple ways to use it.

The most direct way is to collect it and burn it directly, such as for use in kitchens or for boiling water. Because methane's greenhouse effect is more than 20 times that of carbon dioxide, burning it is also more environmentally friendly than releasing it directly into the air.

But Lee Chun-chin said this method still has shortcomings, so a better way is to retrofit pig pens, set up biogas collection bags, compressors and simple piglet warming lamps, so that biogas power generation can feed back into the raising of livestock and lower production costs. Generally speaking, the equipment is all made of plastic, and the bulbs cost only 300 to 500 yuan each: "Add it up and it comes to about 10,000-odd yuan, it just depends on whether farmers are willing to use it."

He said that at present there are 4,000 households in Taiwan raising more than 200 pigs that, under the Water Pollution Control Act, must have wastewater treatment facilities, of which only 277 farms use biogas. That is why Tsao Chi-hung hopes to push another 100 operators to make proper use of biogas power generation before May next year.

"Willingness is what matters most!" After registration, classify and guide by scale

But as for whether to designate special zones for demonstration and extension? Lee Chun-chin said the pig farming industry is currently scattered across the various counties and cities south of Changhua, so opening up special zones could only attract young people who have not yet entered the industry. Therefore, at present they will first coordinate with local governments to find existing operators who are willing, then discuss with experts and carry out classification and guidance according to scale. Such work also includes improving the sanitary environment of pig farmers.

Lee Chun-chin stressed that if pig farmers still look at biogas power generation from the perspective of past economic investment, they will naturally think that investing in equipment costs money and is not easy to recoup. But current agriculture regards wastewater treatment as a basic threshold for the pig farming industry, and the biogas produced by wastewater treatment can in turn be fully used and become a by-product - that is the development direction of new agriculture.

Tsao Chi-hung promises to speed up exit from the foot-and-mouth disease affected area

In addition, some legislators demanded that the Council of Agriculture take concrete action to have Taiwan removed from the foot-and-mouth disease affected area as soon as possible. Tsao Chi-hung also promised to strengthen inspections of operators who do not buy vaccines and do not vaccinate high-risk animals, hoping to raise vaccine coverage to more than 90 percent next year.

Shih Tai-hua, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, said that at present vaccine coverage in Taiwan is only a bit over 70 percent, but as long as serum sampling finds no vaccine, a fine will be imposed directly.

He further explained that since 2013 no new foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks had been found in Taiwan, but after foot-and-mouth disease was found at a cattle farm in Kinmen last May, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) had doubts about removing Taiwan from the list. Therefore, as long as no new outbreaks are reported in Taiwan before June next year and the relevant materials are resupplemented and corrected, the OIE may upgrade Taiwan from a foot-and-mouth disease affected area to a "vaccinate-to-live non-affected area," improving Taiwan's ability to export pork.

In the future, as long as vaccination continues, environmental disinfection and hygiene are implemented, and after appropriate assessment only then will vaccination stop, moving toward the situation of a completely non-affected area.

News Glossary: Biogas Power Generation

This refers to using the gas produced from the waste manure water of raised pigs to generate electricity. General wastewater treatment is divided into three stages: first the feces and urine are separated into solid and liquid, then anaerobic treatment is carried out to decompose odorous substances, and finally aerobic treatment is carried out in an exposure pond, and only after meeting standards is it discharged.

However, the anaerobic treatment process produces gases such as methane that can be burned to generate energy, so if relevant facilities are matched with it, additional value can be generated on top of the existing waste manure water treatment.