From Mauricio.Rosales@fao.org Fri Jul 6 20:13:09 2001 Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 15:53:12 +0200 From: "Rosales, Mauricio (AGAL)"To: "'LEAD-AWI-ECONF-L@mailserv.fao.org'" Subject: LEAD-AWI-ECONF-L:Comments from Robert McCroskey on Nutient Manag ement Paper [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE ON AREA WIDE INTEGRATION OF CROP AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robert McCroskey is strongly against forcing/persuading intensive livestock farmers to find a suitable use for their manure. Instead, he suggests that a demand for manure from crop producers should be created. In the AWI project regions in Thailand and China a market exists for solid manure but not for liquid manure. Do We invite participants to inform us of experience in developing countries where a market/demand exists for liquid manure. We also invite participants to react to the issue how far the driving force for regulations on environmental impacts from livestock production can be the question what burden can be imposed on the livestock farmers. Moderators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: Robert McCroskey, bobmc@uniserve.com I strongly disagree with Dr. Sven Sommer on the concept of forcing/persuading the intensive livestock farmer to find a suitable use of the manure. The farmer is already VERY BUSY in his/her specialized work, and is already at the mercy of certain uncontrollable factors such as weather, climate, feed price, etc.. Yes the concept of overall planning must be expanded on. I can think of one huge successful industrial park, where a producer of chlorine, a producer of PVC plastic and one of refrigerant and teflon are sitting side by side. The same planning and product streaming should be done in an agricultural production park. The planning and regulatory climate must be set up so that a demand is created for the manure in preference to manufactured fertilizer; a user of manure should be encouraged to set up beside or near the manure producer if possible, otherwise bulk handling of the materials is needed. If adequate demand is created for the manure, users of the manure will be coming to the farmer asking for it, instead of placing yet another regulatory burden on the farmers, but of course, the farmer must meet certain storage and containment requirements. Robert McCroskey Canadian Centre for Rabbit Production Development (NGO) Surrey, BC, Canada