Improving manure management in poultry factories in Leningrad region

The agricultural runoff resulting from intensive animal husbandry and use of fertilisers is one of the main sources of nutrient pollution in the Baltic Sea.

Project: Preparation of a business plan for

improving manure management in poultry

factories, Leningrad region

Project owner: Agricultural Committee of

Leningrad Oblast

Duration: 2010–2011

Year of BSAP funding: 2010–2011

Approximate total budget: EUR 200,000

BSAP funding: EUR 200,000

Contact person: David Pepper, PIU LenOblast,

D_pepper@sznii.ru

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Baltic Sea Action Plan Fund The BSAP Fund is a fund managed by the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO). The fund provides grants for technical assistance to projects that support the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). The aim of the BSAP is to help restore the ecological status of the Baltic Sea.

Recipients eligible for financing through the BSAP Fund include both public and private entities operating in the agricultural and wastewater treatment sectors, shipping and ports, as well as those working to reduce hazardous waste in the Baltic Sea catchment area. A key purpose of the fund is to facilitate and speed up the preparation of bankable projects. The fund provides grant financing for the following:

• Project preparation and development,

including feasibility studies, development of business ideas, and cash-flow models

• Technical assistance for institutional support, that is, training and support needed for project preparation, development and implementation

• Measures that improve efficiency and quality in project implementation (e.g., the acquisition of equipment for demonstration purposes).

Sweden has committed SEK 90 million (EUR 9 million) to the BSAP Fund and Finland EUR 2 million.

Contact:

Anders Alm, Senior Manager, NIB

tel: +358 10 618 0377

email: anders.alm@nib.int

www.nib.int

Leningrad Oblast has at least 17 large poultry factories with close to 20 million hens. Annually the hens produce 800,000 tonnes of manure, which contain up to 14,000 tonnes of nitrogen and 3,000 tonnes of phosphorus.

Most of the manure is disposed off in two ways: spread on fields, often in such large quantities that the fields cannot absorb all the nutrients but are washed off by the surface water and eventually reach the Gulf of Finland. The rest of the manure is dumped in large lagoons located close to factories. The lagoons are normally not properly built and do not have non-permeable bottom layers and walls. Therefore, nutrients are leaking out to the nature, and in case of heavy rains, may overflow.

This results in contamination of the groundwater. In some cases, forests around sites have died and eventually the nutrients reach the Gulf of Finland. There is no reliable estimate on how much of the nutrients from chicken factories leak to the receiving water bodies and eventually to the Gulf of Finland, but based on the inspection of a number of manure stores and spreading practices, it might be some 1,500 tonnes annually (50% of produced phosphorus).

The investments in individual factories are the responsibility of the factories themselves. Methods to effectively treat and utilise manure are not well understood, and, therefore, practically all manure is poorly managed. There is, however, willingness among the most advanced factories to invest— provided that cost-effective solutions are found.

Objectives and outcomeDuring the course of the study the following issues were addressed:

• Marketsurveyonthepotentialoffertilisersprocessed from poultry manure

• Analysisoftechnologyalternatives• Analysisandupdateinrespectoflegislativerequirements

and related environmental concerns, as well as other relevant manufacturing or exporting costs

• Analysisandupdateoftheinvestmentcapacityofpoultry factories

• Identificationandanalysisofrelevantfundingoptions• Assessmentofpotentialjointinvestments.

Three business plans were developed around the following technical solutions:

• Acompostingsolution• Apelletizedfertilisersolution• Digestionandincinerationsolutionsinvarious

combinations.