The FINANCIAL — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing a $69 million loan to raise food safety standards and improve livestock waste treatement facilities in Henan Province—one of the most important food producing regions in the country.
“Consumption of meat is rising sharply and consumers are demanding much higher food safety standards, which local governments need to address, along with pollution caused by livestock waste,” said Takeshi Ueda, an ADB Senior Natural Resources Economist. “This project will help demonstrate livestock production and processing models with improved food safety controls and environmental sustainability, while it will also help upgrade the livestock product safety monitoring and inspection system of the province.”
Henan Province is a key food provider in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), producing the most wheat, as well as having the second-highest livestock production by value in 2012. Rising household incomes have led to per capita meat consumption doubling in urban, and tripling in rural areas between 1978 and 2012. At the same time, this demand has led to growing pollution, as many farms discharge animal waste without proper treatment. In Henan Province, only a third of livestock farms meet the national environmental standard for waste discharge and control, according to ADB.
The project will fund animal husbandry bureaus of the provincial, and selected municipal and county governments, to establish or upgrade laboratories and testing equipment. It will also help up to nine medium- and large-sized livestock production and processing enterprises put in place better meat, and feed processing facilities, in-house quality testing laboratories, and waste treatment systems, including biogas generators and organic fertilizer processing equipment. These facilities will use energy and water-saving technologies.
Training on food safety and environmentally sustainable livestock production and processing will be given to the provincial agencies and the participating livestock enterprises, including information on animal welfare and animal medicines.
A key goal of the project will be the adoption of food quality control systems by producers and processers that reflect best practices in the PRC. It will also aim to provide a demonstration model for environmentally sustainable livestock production and processing. Six of the participating enterprises will process solid waste for organic fertilizer, while five will use biogas digesters to generate gas for power generation, which is expected to avoid more than 1,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.
Along with ADB’s loan, the participating enterprises will provide nearly $76 million, and the Henan Provincial Government will extend nearly $4 million. The project will run for almost 5 years, with an expected completion date of March 2021.
ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2014, ADB assistance totaled $22.9 billion, including cofinancing of $9.2 billion.
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