Cow raising in the Mekong Delta - The current status of waste treatment and risk of greenhouse gas emissions

Abstract

This study was aimed to assess the status of waste treatment for cow raising at small farm households in Can Tho, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, and Hau Giang. The interview of 120 cow farmer households indicated that local farmers normally treat their waste by sun-drying, storing in ponds, discharging directly into rivers, or applying to anaerobic biogas. The farmers select ways to treat cow excrement according to seasons of the year: in the dry season cow waste is mostly sun-dried for sale (76.7%); stored for use (10%), untreated (7.5%) or applied to biogas plants (5.8%); however, in the rainy season most of the farmers leave the waste untreated (94.2%), except for those owning biogas tanks. Biogas treatment is applied mainly by dairy cow-raising households, accounting for 85.7% of biogas users. The cow farmer households have limited knowledge about biogas application; 23.3% of the interviewed farmers knew about biogas technology; 47.5% had little knowledge about this technology, however, 29.2% of the selected persons had no idea about biogas technology. Based on the quantity of beef cattle herds in the surveyed areas, it is estimated that CH4 gas emissions account for around 252.3 tons, 61.4 tons, 8.2 tons, and 2.5 tons in Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Can Tho, and Hau Giang, respectively.