Livestock Housing and Manure Storage Need to Be Improved in China

Abstract

China has significantly increased its production and per capita consumption of animal-derived food. However, many livestock farms in China are industrialized and landless, and have poor animal manure management. As a result, losses of nutrients to the environment are large. These losses can cause severe pollution of (i) air, via ammonia (NH3) emissions that contribute to smog and (ii) water, via direct discharge of manure to watercourses and leaching of nitrate (NO3–), causing eutrophication and increasing nitrate accumulation in drinking water.