What to do with tons of chicken manure?

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said they were considering the use of uncollected chicken manure in Pampanga as fertilizer for the vast vegetable farms in Cordillera region.

Piñol said Mayor Jomar Hizon of Bacolor town told him that the ban on transport of chicken, ducks and other poultry by-products would soon pose a problem because tons of chicken manure have not been collected.

“With the restrictions on the transport of poultry products and by-products, including wastes, this is now going to be a huge problem for the poultry farms. If left uncollected, it could be a health issue in the province,” Piñol said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has called for proposals on how to convert the chicken manure into fertilizer.

Piñol said he expected to receive proposals in about a week.

“Passing by the vast area of erstwhile agricultural lands which have been covered by la- har after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption many years ago, an idea immediately entered my mind,” Piñol said.

“The chicken dung could be processed into fertilizer and the lahar covered area could be transformed into a vegetable production area using the greenhouse technology like how they do in the desert areas of Israel,” he added.

“Solar-powered irrigation systems could be installed in the area estimated to be about 5,000 hectares to provide water to the green houses. The greenhouses could produce high value vegetables which, through the Clark International Airport nearby, could even be exported,” Piñol further said.

The Bureau of Animal Industry has banned the transport of fowl and poultry products from Luzon to other parts of the country because of the bird flu outbreak in Pampanga, the first in the country.

Some 37,000 birds died from avian influenza subtype H5 in six poultry farms in San Luis town.

A quarantine area was declared within one-kilometer radius of the affected poultry farms and an estimated 600,000 birds were culled.