China has achieved
rapid economic development in the past three decades and has become the
second-largest growing economy of the world. However, this success has come at
the cost of deterioration of the country's environment. China's environmental
problems, including outdoor and indoor air pollution, water shortages,
contamination, desertification, and soil pollution have become more pronounced
and are subjecting the Chinese resident to significant health risks.
In China, the
pollution that has caught the most attention is the agricultural pollution or
waste from poultry and livestock farms that have contaminated land and water
supplies in the country. With an increase in the meat demand in the country,
the poultry or livestock waste has increased and is further expected to get
amplified until proper measures are taken. Though the new environmental
policies have forced thousands of local farms to relocated or close near
densely populated or environmentally sensitive areas but utilization of the
farms waste especially manure is still a big issue for the agencies and farms.
In order to
minimize the manure pollution, the Chinese government has initiated many
policies which can transform the manure into a valuable resource that if used
appropriately can replace a significant amount of chemical fertilizers.
Recently, a Russian startup team ZEOL has created organic fertilizer from birds
dropping and zeolite mineral. According
to the team, the fertilizer is quite efficient and can increase productivity by
up to 50 %. Though the technology is still in the testing phase and has not yet
been brought in China, it can be utilized to solve the country's largest
problem, poultry waste.
The Tatarstan
based company ZEOL's prototype fertilizers are being tested in several
laboratories, including in Persian Gulf Countries and bringing the technology
in China will not only help in managing the manure problem of every so
increasing livestock but will also allow the farmers to have an organic
fertilizer that aims to increase the productivity of their crops especially
grains. ZEOL is not only planning to sell their final product to the interested
countries but also the technology for reducing the hazard class of bird dropping
using zeolite. Chinese farms and poultry enterprises could use the technology
to protect themselves from administrative penalties and can also begin
producing their own fertilizer that can be sold or used in their own fields
since large poultry farms often adapt the surrounding area for the production
of feed crop.