Hai'an, a county-level city in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, has made significant efforts to develop livestock farming while prioritizing environmental protection in recent years.

The county has achieved a remarkable utilization rate of over 96 percent for livestock manure resources. The qualification rate in pollution control and the provision of supporting facilities for 576 large-scale breeding farms in Hai'an stand at 100 percent.

Nantong Tiancheng Modern Agricultural Technology Co Ltd in Hai'an is currently utilizing smart vertical fermentation tanks and biogas pools to ferment chicken manure and treat wastewater, thus producing organic fertilizers.

Li Weimin, executive deputy general manager of the company, stated that the enterprise can produce 58,000 metric tons of fresh chicken manure, handle 900 tons of livestock wastewater, and produce an average of 20,000 tons of organic fertilizer each year.

To further increase the utilization of livestock manure, the company has set up an internal planting area of 350 mu (23.33 hectares) and plants crops such as wheat and rice in rotation. Besides internal consumption, organic fertilizers produced by the company are also supplied to nearby farmers. About 15,000 tons of organic fertilizer are sold outside the city each year.

One of the beneficiaries of organic fertilizer is Yazhou modern agriculture park. The park's high-quality organic rice plantation is facilitated by high-concentration biogas slurry fertilizer produced by the local enterprise Puhao Bioenergy Co Ltd.

About 5,000 tons of biogas slurry fertilizer can meet the annual needs of a 1,000-mu plantation base in the park. The utilization of organic fertilizer will reduce the usage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by nearly 70 tons and save up to 260 yuan ($36.04) per mu of land in costs, according to Han Yumei, the person in charge of the base.

Due to significant progress in the integrated development of the livestock industry and environmental protection, Hai'an has been designated as the national pilot city for comprehensive utilization of livestock manure and provincial demonstration city for ecological circular agriculture.

A smart vertical fermentation tank at a local farm in Hai'an. [Photo/Nantong Daily]