Speaking at a conference on livestock breeding in Hanoi (22 February), Nguyen Thi Thu Huong from the Vietnam Environmental Administration’s (VEA) Institute of Environmental Science, described how the proliferation of pig producers continues to have a negative impact on the environment.

Families in Vietnam have been rearing pigs for a living for generations, but this is not without its consequences when farmers struggle to treat waste, even at a small-scale level.

Small-scale farmers currently use biogas digesters to convert pig waste to reusable biogas but the amount of waste currently being produced is overwhelming generators and causing a headache for farmers and authorities who supervise the treatment process.

Ranking sixth in the world for production (VietnamPlus) but wanting to expand further, the VEA warns that efficient waste treatment is already a difficulty for farmers who will not have the capacity to treat waste on a larger scale.

Huong states that overlaps in management authority are a major issue as the standards for waste discharge were written by both the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. She believes that the two ministries should work together to phase out unnecessary, overlapping regulations and ensure inspection and supervision teams are trained properly to work with farmers on their waste treatment options. She added that authorities should be studying and investing in other livestock waste treatment technologies to aid Vietnamese farmers.

As reported by VietnamPlus