On June 16-20, 2008, the technical training program on livestock waste management training in Sichuan was successfully held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. It was the first province-level training program held by the SFAGM project in Sichuan this year following the May 12th earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale.

After the earthquake, people in Sichuan are engaged in the reconstruction with great efforts. Except for a few severely damaged areas, other areas sent nearly 100 leaders and technical specialists from animal-raising enterprises, animal husbandry bureaus and animal husbandry centers or associations of all the cities and counties of Sichuan to this training.

At 9 o’clock on the morning of 17th, the opening ceremony, which as chaired by Diao Yunhua, stationmaster of Sichuan General Station for Breeding and Improvement of Livestock, was held in Jinhong Hotel, Chengdu. Lan Mingjian, deputy director of Sichuan Animal Husbandry Bureau, Fu Gang, a division director of Sichuan Animal Husbandry Bureau and Wang Ermao, also a division director of Sichuan Animal Husbandry Bureau, among others, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Based on the actual conditions of animal husbandry in Sichuan, Mr. Lan briefly analyzed the necessity and importance of controlling pollution of animal husbandry in Sichuan, believing that this training program would produce a positive effect on the treatment of livestock dung in Sichuan.

Project coordinator Zhang Tiejun introduced the work in the SFAGMP project in terms of environment sustainability. Zeng Yangshuang, a deputy sectional director of Sichuan General Station for Breeding and Improvement of Livestock, made a detailed assessment and elaboration of the sources of pollution of animal-raising industry in Sichuan and how to control them. Stationmaster Diao Yunhua put forward very useful countermeasures of local color to tackle the challenges of pollution by citing real examples and giving statistical data. Then, the participants listened to a series of reports, including the methods to control livestock pollution in the suburban areas of Shuangliu County, and the technologies for treatment of livestock dung, and the use of microorganisms and biogases for treatment of dung, etc. That was the end of classroom training on the first day. On Day 2, Dr. Shi Minjun, from Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a macroscopic account of the overall situation of agricultural environment and the strategy of environmental management in China. Then, Prof. Dong Renjie, from China Agricultural University, focused his topics on the use of biogas electricity in dung treatment and the energy-saving agricultural mode of recycling wastes into treasures. In the end, Dr. Xu Zhi, from the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, gave a further introduction to the ecological ways of raising animals and the technologies of producing organic fertilizers.

On the morning of 19th, after two days’ classroom training, the participants started field visits. The first station was the milk cow-raising base of Jule Company at Qingyang District of Chengdu, where the participants visited the pilot project of separation of dry-wet dung and the multi-level sedimentary treatment of milk cow dung. Following that, they visited the dung treatment facilities of Meilian Company’s dairy farm located in Pengshan County, and they compared technical and cost differences between this company and Jule Company in dung treatment.

On the buses from Chengdu to Leshan, the participants started to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the previous two pilot production bases. Before they realized, they had arrived at a national-level pilot production base - Lanyan Dairy Farm, which is located in Jingyan County, Leshan City, to learn about the practice of dung treatment in artificial wetlands. By visiting the exhibition of its development history, the participants got to know more details about Lanyan Company, including its land area and technological processes, and they had an active communication with its technical specialists. On 20th, the participants visited a pilot dairy farm and a factory of organic compound fertilizers in Leshan, and thus got to know the technological processes and the marketing situation of using livestock dung to produce organic fertilizers.

After the days’ classroom training and field visits, the participants generally felt they had benefited a lot, and in particular, the selected sites for field visits enabled them to combine what they learnt in classroom with the real practice, and enabled them to know the wide use or the trial use of advanced technologies in China today. Many participants from enterprises said that they would use the dung treatment facilities as soon as they went back, trying to achieve the zero-emission goal of dung treatment. Participants from animal husbandry associations and related departments said thoughtfully: To improve the environment is a long-term and difficult task, but this training has pointed us a right direction. “A single spark can start a prairie fire.” As this Chinese saying goes, we are like sparks and we will try to spread the knowledge and ideas we have learned at this training program, making our contributions to the control of livestock pollution.