Anti-smell campaign for Russia’s Belgorod region

The drugs are targeted to decrease the amount of harmful gases inside the pig houses and curb the toxicity of manure, a press release stated, issued by the regional Association of Pig Producers, published on March 2.

Encouraging results

Stanislav Oleinik, deputy governor of Belgorod region, said that the regional authorities held trials related to microbiological drugs aimed at the reduction of bad smells at some particular pig farms and the results of these tests were quite encouraging. Oleinik emphasised that the use of the drugs reduced the negative environmental impact and also improved the economic situation of pig producing businesses.

He also stressed that the campaign against the bad smell from the pig farms is aimed at significantly reducing the number of complaints by citizens of towns and villages located close to the pig complexes. As a result, regional authorities would decrease the number of unscheduled inspections of pig farms, Oleinik said.

The domestic drug

The press release said that the pig farmers will not be limited in choice of what drug they would like to use. However, the initiative primarily targets the use of the mixture recently developed by the group of local scientists.

In the end of 2016 the regional Scientific and Technical Center of Biological Technologies in Agriculture finished trials related to the new microbiological drug aimed at the reduction of bad odours at pig farms. According to the press release, the organisation tested the drug in 2016 and the results showed that its use reduces the content of ammonia in pig houses and increase the content of ozone in soil.

Microclimate is much more pleasant

Regional media Belpressa reported that the drug was tested at the pig farms of BVK holding. The company’s general director Valery Zolotukhin said that the result was that the ‘microclimate at the facilities became much more pleasant both for humans and animals’.

At a meeting with regional governor Eugene Savchenko, he even suggested that the authorities should support the companies, which use the drug with state aid in the form of subsidies.

No promised subsidies

Oleinik said that the regional government should consider this measure, adding however, that even if the state aid really would be placed, this was going to be mostly a ‘motivational and psychological factor’ and not a huge amount of money. The press release of regional Association of Pig Producers, however, doesn’t say a word about state support and there is no relevant decree registered in the regional government yet.

Harmful substances in manure have reduced

Nikolay Razuvaev, spokesperson of Agro-Belogorie, told Belpressa that the company has been using similar drugs since 2014 without any subsidies. Razuvaev explained that Agro-Belogorie noticed significant effect from this as the amount of gases and the volume of harmful substances in manure reduced.

In total, the company is spending 15 million roubles (US$ 250,000) per year on waste management.