| Agriculture which employs more than half of the population is fading as the most important economic sector in Vietnam. The livestock sector in agriculture plays an important role as it is one of the fastest growing agricultural subsectors. There has been growing public concern over the environmental and human health issues associated with livestock production. Contaminants which include nutrients, pathogens, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and natural/synthetic hormones from animal waste generated can be transported into surface and groundwater. This review paper distributions information from field research and various databases, summarize the current status of waste management approaches in the country. Information on local authorities and national regulatory requirements for waste management approaches was collected and reported. Selected technical data was attached into this paper. In recent years, the livestock sector accounted more than 30 percent of gross agricultural output and growing faster year-by-year. The total amount of animal manure generated in the country is around 80 million tons per year. It is recorded over one-third of livestock manure was directly discharged into the water body without proper treatment which caused of such concerns to water quality as well as aquatic ecosystems. By increasing livestock production, waste management problems will continue to increase and become more serious that needed to improve waste management approach from government. There is a big gap between national standards for livestock wastes discharge at livestock farms realities. For those that have already constructed biogas digesters, there is no monitoring to verify if the biogas effluents meet the standards to discharge into the public environment. Even the biogas effluent could use as fertilizer for crops, there is no any regulatory to promote this practice. It needs a long-term strategy for government at all levels to implement effective strategies to manage the livestock waste management in Vietnam. |
