VietNamNet Bridge – It is estimated that 60-65 percent of the nitrogen fertilizer has not been absorbed by plants. Millions of tons of waste from livestock farms and 90 percent of solid waste has been discharged to the rural environment every year without treatment.

The waste from livestock farms is one of the biggest polluting sources in agriculture production. A cow discharges 10-15 kilos of waste a day, a pig 2.5-3.5 kilos, a duck or a fowl 90 grams, which means that 73 million tons of waste is discharged every year from the animal husbandry.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the household-run husbandry has been dominating in Vietnam, which makes it more difficult to manage the farms’ waste.

A report of the ministry showed that there are some 8.5 million of household run farms nationwide and 18,000 concentrated farms where animals and poultry are bred in the industrial scale.

However, to date, only 8.7 percent of the households have had biogas works. The households having sanitary farms also amount to 10 percent of the total households while only 0.6 percent of households have committed to protect the environment. About 23 percent of the households have not used any methods to treat the waste from their farms, letting the waste go directly to the environment.

The misuse of veterinary medicine, vaccines and the disease prevention drugs has also caused big consequences to the environment. Of the 134 water samples taken from the water wells near the dead poultry dumping grounds, 23 percent has been found as having infected with the organic matter concentrations higher than allowed levels. Meanwhile, 42.3 percent of samples have been found as containing microorganism higher than the permitted limit.

Also according to the ministry, up to 90 percent of the straw and stems of cereal crops have been burned or discarded in the fields.

The environment has been polluted not only by the organic waste, but also from the increasingly high volume of solid waste from the production activities.

Scientists have noted that Vietnamese farmers have been abusing the plant protection chemicals, which cause high levels of pesticide residues in vegetables and pollutes the soil.

A report showed that Vietnam imports some 150,000 tons of plant protection chemicals every year. The abuse of pesticides in pest control campaigns which does not come in compliance with the set technique procedures has caused many cases of food poisoning.

It is estimated that 19,000 tons of packaging waste is discharged to the environment ever year. This is listed as a kind of hazardous waste, but it has not been treated due to the problems in the collection and treatment process.

Regarding the aquaculture, the General Directorate of Fisheries has pointed out that the biggest problems lie in the shrimp and catfish ponds. In order to get one kilo of tra fish, farmers have to use 3-5 kilos of feed, but only 17 percent of the feed can be absorbed, while the remaining volume mingles to the water environment, thus causing the environment pollution.

Farmers and local authorities recently have reported more and more aquatic epidemics, which has been blamed on the increasingly serious environment pollution.

Le Van Bam, Acting Director of the MARD’s Department of Science, Technology and Environment, has noted that the contradiction between the economic development and the environment protection has become wider. Meanwhile, the Environment Protection Law does not stipulate the punishments heavy enough to prevent the behaviors of harming the environment in agricultural production.

KTNT