Russia (bbabo.net), - The speedy adoption of the law on animal waste products will finally allow the free use of manure as fertilizers, and businesses will get rid of millions of fines, industry experts say.
At the "government hour" in the Federation Council on February 11, its speaker Valentina Matviyenko severely criticized the federal authorities for the slow approval of a bill on the use of manure as a natural fertilizer and set the task for senators and government members to agree on a draft law within a week.
In the last few years, manure and litter are recognized as waste, agrochemicals, raw materials for the product (fertilizer) and the product itself. Each category has its own standards and requirements, which cannot be met all together without violating any of them. As a result, in Russia, on the one hand, the application of organic fertilizers has seriously decreased, on the other hand, enterprises are at risk of being fined for non-compliance with any of the requirements. The bill on waste products, which will solve the problem, was submitted to the State Duma at the end of last year by a group of senators and deputies of the State Duma.
Now the problem of manure accumulated by enterprises is very acute. A serious legal conflict has developed: in the legislation, animal waste is equated to production waste, which means that they cannot be used in agricultural circulation, explained Yury Kovalev, Director General of the National Union of Pig Breeders. In addition, companies face multi-billion dollar fines for violating recycling rules. If this issue is not resolved in the near future, then we can talk about significant risks for the industry and serious negative consequences, the expert believes.
At the same time, in his opinion, some ecologists grossly distort the essence of the problem when they say that industry enterprises want to be able to dump waste without control.
"This is not so. Manure must be processed into organic fertilizers and used in economic circulation. For this, there are regulations and certain technical conditions that all large companies meet. Those enterprises that do not want to invest in either manure processing technologies or storage facilities, "They will leave the market. The industry stands for a civilized approach to work that would ensure the preservation of nature, on the one hand, and business development, on the other," said Yuri Kovalev. He also added that the Ministry of Agriculture has been raising this issue for a long time, but the initiative is facing opposition from a number of other departments.
Today, Russia is one of the five largest producers of poultry and pork, and one of the ten leaders in the production of beef. Since 2005, more than 1.2 trillion rubles have been invested in the industry, hundreds of livestock breeding facilities have been created, built according to world standards, taking into account all environmental requirements. The country has become a net exporter of meat products, said Sergei Yushin, head of the executive committee of the National Meat Association. However, in his opinion, the development of the industry is hampered by imperfect laws and excessive administrative burdens. This, in particular, concerns the issues of handling animal waste products, namely manure and droppings.
He also knows cases when livestock farmers were fined by Rosprirodnadzor due to ambiguous interpretation of the legislation.
"Such fines can easily lead to the bankruptcy of even the most advanced enterprises. Producers spend months suing the supervisory agency, proving their case instead of focusing on their core business - meat production," the expert says.
He stressed that the bill "on manure" does not imply a decrease in the level of environmental protection. No one will allow pig farmers or poultry farmers to pour fresh manure and droppings into the river, poison their soil.
"Everything will remain here as before - nature will be protected by law. But, finally, clarity will be introduced into the regulation, which is ambiguously interpreted by supervisory authorities. The bill is complex and creates, among other things, the conditions formation of a new industry - the production and circulation of organic fertilizers," Yushin noted.
At the same time, if manure are not used to improve soil fertility, they, as now, will be recognized as waste and, as before, will be regulated by waste legislation.
A similar opinion is shared by the general director of Soyuzmoloko Artem Belov. According to him, the total amount of fines based on the results of one inspection of an agricultural enterprise could reach tens of millions of rubles. The reason could be, for example, incorrect record keeping, lack of sanitary and epidemiological conclusions for manure processing products, etc. The urgent adoption of a law on animal waste products will reduce the tension in the sector, Belov believes.
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