LCASP and environmental 'revolution'

"Not only towards an environmentally friendly agricultural production, the LCASP is also ambitious for bigger destinations, including tailings, crop residues, Farming into commercial products ". Prof. Dr. Bui Van Chinh (pictured), former head of the Department of Nutrition and Environment Research (Institute of Animal Husbandry) commented on the great significance of the LCASP project.

Spread to each household

According to Assoc. Prof. Bui Van Chinh, perhaps even the designers of the LCASP project did not envision the spread of the program as fast and so fast. Only after 3 years of implementation, 10 participating provinces have built 24,000 small biogas plants. Meanwhile, the project's target for the 2013-2018 period is 36,000. With the steps of "spectacular sprint," some provinces have reached the plan to build / install biogas plants for the whole period. Typically Bac Giang has about 4,500 works.

What made this feat, sir? First of all, MARD has many projects to develop agriculture and rural areas with very good results. Therefore, new projects are trusted by the people. In addition, experience gained from previous programs, this time the LCASP Project Management Board takes advantage of all forms of communication: open local training, mass media and direct communication. To every household moving. The advantage is that the project has the coordination of an extension system "coverage" from central to local. They have the knowledge, experience and enthusiasm at work. Therefore, the deployment is relatively easy.

The project also empowers the provinces to fund their activities, so the locality promotes its strengths. In the context of the country is actively implementing the project of agricultural restructuring in the direction of enhancing added value and sustainable development, focusing on three factors: economic, social and environmental. So what does the LCASP project contribute to the transformation of the industry? According to the Livestock Department, the livestock sector releases more than 80 million tons of organic waste annually. If that counts, every citizen will have to handle nearly 1 ton of animal waste.

However, 70 percent of Vietnam's population lives in rural areas. Thus, it is estimated that a farmer must handle more than 1 ton of waste. This is a huge burden. But in fact, many livestock farms have seriously taken measures to treat animal waste before discharging into the environment. But there are also many places that do not work well, only to deal with the authorities. In many livestock areas, only after a heavy rain, the spills of effluents spread to the rivers, streams and lakes, leaving the depression deep in the people.

Turn "turn away" into money

The climatic characteristics of Vietnam are hot and humid, heavy rain. As a result, the LCASP project provides a leading solution for livestock waste disposal that supports the construction of biogas. Unlike previous programs and projects, LCASP not only aims to increase the number of biogas reactors but also the environmental categories. For example, a household with 8-10 pigs, they build a small biogas reactor capacity of about 8-12 m3.

But, if the price of pigs rise next year, farmers can raise up to 20-30 children to light the profit. The amount of waste dumped into the biogas reactor exceeds the permitted level, so fresh feces and water are released into the polluted environment. In the above cases, the project requires the farmer to dig a compost pit to treat the fertilizer to fertilizer. Or, if the farmer uses too much broth, it is imperative to build a collection tank to keep the residue of solid waste, just push the waste water down to the biogas reactor.

As for large scale producers, we will build medium capacity biogas reactors (from 50 m3 to 499 m3) and large ones (over 500 m3), then install power generation systems to operate the internal equipment. Farms such as wind fans, pumps, lighting lights ... Even the biogas plant can sell (donate) electricity to neighboring households so that excess methane is not released into the air. Farmers with limited capital to build biogas plants can borrow credit from the project at low interest rates. In addition, there is another way to build composting facilities in the livestock area.

All the waste will be gathered into a single compost to be processed into organic fertilizer. Currently, this kind of fertilizer on the market is very priced, many people have enriched from this model. In addition to livestock waste, the field of cultivation also produces enormous greenhouse gas emissions. What is the solution the project is proposing to solve this problem? Yes. We know that crop residues are also a major contributor to environmental pollution, especially greenhouse gas emissions.

Therefore, the LCASP project also designed a separate component for the development of low-carbon agricultural production models. Based on local recommendations, the project management board is developing eco-friendly agricultural production models. Examples include improved rice cultivation (SRI); Conversion of ineffective rice area to shallow crop; Using waste and crop residues to produce biochar ... Hopefully, when these models are implemented in practice, they will create a positive change, contributing to the achievement of the objective of building an agriculture. Environmental friendliness. Thank you Sir!

MINH PHUC