November 27, 2013

Chinese authorities will regulate poultry and livestock production due to pollution generated by animal husbandry, which has become a major problem in the countryside, according to a regulation signed by Premier Li Keqiang.

The regulation on the prevention of the husbandry-generated pollution, which was publicised on Tuesday (Nov 19), will take effect on January 1, 2014. It is expected to help reshape the industry and prevent avian influenza.

According to a statement jointly released on Tuesday (Nov 19) by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture, poultry and livestock production have been inconsistent with environmental protection in the country's rural areas.

The worsening rural environment can be largely blamed on the expansion of poultry husbandry factories, said the statement.

The level of decontamination of husbandry waste remains low and this has led to wasted resources and environmental pollution, and that the industry has become the nation's major source of agricultural pollution, it said.

The municipal and county governments are ordered by the regulation to make plans to build facilities to comprehensively utilise the wastes and safely dispose of them. In heavily polluted regions, some poultry farms may be relocated or shut down.

The local authorities are also required to provide incentives to centralise and standardise development of husbandry, and vowed to support recycling and decontamination of waste. It also orders that untreated waste should not be released directly into the environment.

Meanwhile, poultry and livestock farms must build facilities to store waste, treat sewage, and to process manure and the methane produced from waste resources, under the regulation.