Improving Waste Management Strategies for Small Livestock Farms - Term Paper Example

The operations of CAFOs lead to production of wastes like manure, litter and the waste water from operations. They are known to have a high content of nitrogen, phosphorus, other metals and a host of harmful bacteria if not managed all these harmful substances can easily get into the environment. It is of importance that factors should put in place to prevent pollution from these small AFOs. The average size of farms has increased steadily over the last several years of this is due to the lucrative livestock industry, which has been known to yield high profits.

Six major air pollutants have been identified as coming from AFOs areas or any animal housing areas, animal waste treatment areas they are known to highly contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions. They Include; ammonia nitrous oxide, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide. The best way to combat these in small farms is in the building of bio gas digesters, which provide cooking gases well as electricity and harness dangerous gases like methane preventing it from getting into the atmosphere (Ciravolo p 259).

Though this has been known to be a capital intensive venture individuals, may form small organizations with a cooperative like to set up so that they can put the necessary infrastructure in place for the harnessing of these gases. This will also enable them to harness these gases in large scales, and this can lead to a viable economic return from its sales in the neighboring households. However, this is not a new approach and the stakeholders have to embrace technological means to ensure that they have the best approach to guarantee a clean environment as well as an effective conducive environment to coexist with other small scale farmers.

Another major contributor is the odorous gases which lead to anaerobic degradation. Anaerobic degradation involves the decline of composite organic compounds to a range of odorous VFAs by bacteria that form acids. These bacteria alter VFAs to odorless methane and carbon dioxide. If these anaerobic components are in equilibrium, most redolent compounds are removed. The governments ought to recognize the status of small-scale livestock farmers and offer incentives to enable them to efficiently deal with waste management.

This may be in the form of subsidies, or tax waivers for those who efficiently comply with the regulations put in place. Manure is a byproduct of the whole aspect of livestock production though it is normally viewed as a useful by-product mostly by the farmers. It still poses serious environmental problems if not utilized, applied or disposed in the right manner. Manure contains pathogens and bacteria from within the systems of these animals eliminated as waste products. These pose a big challenge to even the farmers themselves.

Pathogens also pose a major challenge; it mainly gets its way to underground water percolation Percolating water provides the adequate mechanism for percolation of microorganisms through soil profiles. In inundated flow, water passes the soil filtering process thus; taking microorganisms with it through the soil profile the best way to address the pathogen problem is by carrying out process like air drying. Air drying is the process through which Animal wastes like manure is desiccated on sand beds basins or any other exposure to the