Poultry and hog raisers in Bulacan vow to improve livestock management

CITY OF MALOLOS – Hundreds of poultry and hog raisers in Bulacan has stepped up their game in livestock management as they vowed to improve their operations in preventing the occurrence of environmental problems caused by unhygienic livestock practices during an orientation meeting held at The Balagtas Hall, Hiyas ng Bulacan Convention Center in this city, recently.

In line with the directives of the newly appointed Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Gina Lopez, livestock raisers reviewed their compliance to the government laws pertaining to the protection of environment and public health and were oriented by the officials and advocates from the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) Region III and Provincial Government of Bulacan about the corrective measures to mitigate the negative effects of irresponsible commercial livestock production.

“Our top most objective is to orient livestock raisers in Bulacan on environment regulations pertinent to their operations and help them to facilitate compliance to the said rules. As much as industries involved in livestock raising often create large-scale environmental problems because of their tendency to directly discharge untreated waste into our water resources,” EMB Region III Director Lormelyn Claudio said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado expressed his firm stand in the strict implementation of environmental and safety programs in livestock industry and encouraged raisers to be responsible with their operations.

“We need to work together to mitigate the negative effects of commercial livestock production to the environment and public health. Livestock raisers should be responsible to the wastes generated by their operations,” the governor said.

Alvarado also called the attention of the local government units in the province to regularly monitor poultry farms and piggeries in their towns to ensure that the wastes generated by its operations will not affect the environment and the health of the people in their respective communities.

Prior to this, the governor already gave an order for the investigation of the poultry farms and piggeries in the province which have allegedly been pestering the community because of swarming flies due to their unhygienic livestock practices.