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1. Project Summary and Relationship to China's Agenda 21

The project seeks to study and develop the technology for production and application of organic manure, coated fertiliser and special fertiliser; set up a demonstration system for production of organic manure, coated fertiliser and special fertiliser and promote the recovery and recycling of waste matters and treatment of livestock excrement so as to avoid environmental contamination. This project can increase soil fertility and raise the fertiliser utilisation rate, thereby promoting the utilisation of agricultural resources and sustainable development of agriculture in China.

This project is based on programme areas 2A, 11A, 11B, 11D, 11E, 11F, 14D and 19C, and is related to programme areas 2B, 11C, 14B, 18C, 19A and 19C of Chinas Agenda 21.

2. Background

China has a good tradition of application of organic manure, which has played a critical role in Chinese agriculture for thousands of years. China is rich in organic manure: (1) China produces more than 570 million tons of crop straw every year, a quarter of which cannot be recovered and have to be either left or burned in the field . This is not only a waste of resources but also a cause for air pollution and conflagration; (2) 1 billion tons of livestock excrement is produced every year; (3) urban human waste is 0.1 billion tons a year, less than one third of which has been treated and used.

Organic manure can provide crops with balanced nutrient mix, which can ease the imbalance of proportion of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and trace elements in Chinas inorganic fertiliser. It also has a role in raising inorganic fertiliser efficiency. In addition, urban and rural environment would turn cleaner and better by extensive development and utilisation of organic manure resources. Thus the scientific application of organic fertiliser is one of the principal solutions to maintaining the sustainability and productivity of cropland.

The development of organic fertiliser in China today encounters a series of problems: 1) the traditional manure-composting techniques are too backward, labour- and time-consuming; 2) the scale of production and utilisation is too small with low economic efficiency.

Farmyard manure application accounts for two thirds of the quantity generated. Large quantities of livestock excrement from rural animal husbandry and large-scale livestock farms needs to be treated.

China annually consumes uses 120,000 tons of plastic ground-covering film for agricultural use over 2 million hectares of land. Most of the used film will be left in the soil, resulting in serious pollution to the agricultural environment. Meanwhile, about 300,000 tons of discarded plastic bags and fast-food lunch-boxes and other plastic products are produced in cities every year, which is a serious 'white pollution'. Therefore, the production of coated fertiliser through the use of plastic wastes will not only lead to the recycling and utilisation of wastes and environmental improvement but will also improve the physical property of chemical fertiliser, make full use of fertiliser and reduce the release of methane in paddy fields.

The annual consumption of the fertiliser in China is over 100 million tons. However, the irrational application has brought a problem of imbalanced nutrient and over-application of nitrogen fertiliser. Over-application of nitrogen fertiliser leads to marked increase of nitrogen in the form of nitrates and nitrites in the soil and in agricultural products (mainly in vegetables). The leaching of nitrogen and phosphorous begins to bring a negative influence on bodies of water (e.g. eutrophication). There is a huge waste of fertiliser resources, which increases costs, hinder the sustainable development of agriculture, pollute environment and endanger the health of the people.

The establishment of a production and distribution system of specialised fertiliser is an important way to improve fertiliser efficiency. ëSpecialised' fertiliser is a type designed for a particular crop, considering the local soil nutrients and the nutrient requirement for the particular crop. It has balanced nutrients, thus every nutrient can be made full use, waste and leaching can be minimised. This fertiliserís utilisation rate can be increased by 5-19%. Currently, fertilisers used in developed countries are almost totally of the specialised type. Their experience and technology in plant testing, fertiliserís formulation, production facilities and technology should be actively introduced.

In the Eighth Five-Year Plan period, the Ministry of Agriculture, with assistance from UNDP, initiated a balanced fertilisation pilot programme in 7 counties, introduced testing instruments to equip the laboratory and improve the speed and precision of testing, implemented field experiments recommended by FAO and achieved large amount of data and fine results. The Ministry of Agriculture is currently disseminating information on balanced application of fertiliser with auxiliary projects set up for 100 demonstration plots. All these pre-project preparations have laid a foundation for this project.

Currently, developed countries have already possessed matured technologies and facilities and accumulated rich production experience in the processing and factory-scale production of organic manure, coated fertiliser and specialised fertiliser. Therefore, it is necessary and wise to deepen international co-operation in production technology, facilities and raw material. The organisation agency of this project is the National Service Centre for the Promotion of Agricultural technology, which is the department in charge of agricultural technology promotion under the Ministry of Agriculture. It links the government and the peasants and administrate national investment items in agriculture technology. The centre has a relatively strong technological force and a complete service system over the country. It has a great influence and can undertake various large-scale technological production projects.

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3. Objective

3.1 Long-term Objective

Based on the situation of manure and agricultural waste resource in China and the development trend, this project will, by rational planning, establish a corresponding system for organic fertiliser production and agricultural wastes reusing, stream the channel of recycling and utilisation of waste resources, raise the resource utilisation rate in an all-round way and improve the environment.

3.2 Immediate Objectives

• To introduce, develop and improve the techniques and process tools for the processing, transformation and manufacture of manure, clothed fertiliser and specialised fertiliser;
• To construct factory with positive demonstration effect for the manufacture and processing of manure, clothed fertiliser and specialised fertiliser, to upgrade fertiliser processing and marketing system of factory-scale production, and to commercialise supply and industrialised service;
• To provide integrated guidance and service of soil testing-prescription-fertiliser application for the peasants, and to enhance fertiliser utilisation rate in an all-round way.

4. Outputs and Activities

4.1 Construction of a demonstration centre for factory production of organic compound fertiliser, perfecting a demonstration supporting system of organic fertiliser factory-scale production, commercialise supply and industrialise service.

• To establish a national comprehensive Centre for Microbiology Technology (CMT), import advanced micro-organism bacteria and breeding, technology so as to raise the level of cultivation, purification and production of China's micro-organism bacteria and provide good fermentive preparation and functional strains of micro-organism bacteria to the factories for the manufacture of organic fertiliser.
• To develop and perfect of technological system for factory-scale production of organic compound fertiliser.

Monitoring Indicators: 8 demonstration production centres for manufacture of organic fertiliser with an annual capacity of over 30,000 tones each in Yichang of Hubei, Nanjing of Jiangsu, Qingdao of Shandong, Dalian of Liaoning, Zhangzhou of Fujian, Chengdu of Sichuan, Nanchang of Jiangxi and Lanzhou of Gansu.

Implementing Agencies: the Ministry of Agriculture, city governments of the demonstration centres and their agricultural departments in charge.

Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 2002

4.2 Construction of ten coated-fertiliser factories with a capacity of recycling 5,000 tonnes of plastic wastes.

• To construct 10 coated-fertiliser factories in Beijing, Shenyang, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, Guiyang, Lanzhou, Hefei, Nanjing, Fuzhou and Haikou respectively.
• To introduce of foreign techniques including resin coating technology, waste plastic coating technology and nitrification-inhibiting coating technology, development and perfection of technology system for China's coated fertiliser production.
• To work out the criteria of production technology and quality for coated fertiliser.

Monitoring Indicators: total output of 1,000,000 tons of coated fertiliser, the criteria of technology and quality of coated fertiliser production.

Implementing Agencies: MOA, Beijing Chemical Industrial Institute, city governments of demonstration centres.

Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 2002

4.3 Setting up a production service system for specialised fertiliser, which integrates soil testing, nutrients formula, manufacture and fertiliser application guidance.

• To introduce necessary equipment for soil and fertiliser testing centre.
• To introduce automatic mixing and granulation technologies from America or Canada.
• To set up an expert consulting system on balance fertiliser application.
• To construct corresponding specialised fertiliser factories and a fertiliser application service and guidance network.

Monitoring Indicators: 20 demonstration counties for the manufacture of specialised fertiliser with an annual output of 0.6-1 million tons, fertiliser utilisation rate raised by 10-20% with the implementation and dissemination of specialised fertiliser production and service system.

Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, and the relevant demonstration county's government.

Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 2002

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5. Inputs

5.1 Chinese Inputs

Chinese input will be used for project management, domestic experts, researchers, administrative personnel and labour, construction of demonstration plant, land for plant construction, part of infrastructure construction, and so on.

5.2 International Inputs

International input will be used for part of infrastructure construction, factory building, key facilities for the production of organic fertiliser, coated fertiliser and specialised fertiliser, the large grain raw material for production of coated fertiliser, testing equipment, foreign expert technological consultation and guidance, training of personnel, introduction and exchange of high and new technology, method, information and experience.

5.3 Budget

The total capital needed for this project is US$ 20 million. The Chinese participants will raise US$ 6.0 million from domestic source, while foreign aid and investment will cover the other US$ 14 million.

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Table 1. Budget by Item (in million US dollars)

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Table 2. Budget by Output (in million US dollars)

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6. Benefits

Balanced fertilising can be realised through the use of organic fertiliser, coated fertiliser, specialised fertiliser. This will raise not only fertiliser utilisation rate and improve soil fertility but also raise unit production and sustainable production capacity of the land. The use of coated fertiliser and specialised fertiliser can also save labour in field fertilisation. For instance, buying coated-fertiliser, the peasant will have to pay 300 RMB Yuan more per ton, but he can save fertiliser by 15% per ton (which means 225 yuan), at the same time yield can be increased by 10% that is 600-800 kg per ton of coated fertiliser, which means an increase of total value of 1200-1600 yuan RMB. Therefore the net income for the peasant can be increased by 1125-1525 yuan RMB.

The implementation of this project will promote the all-round development of organic manure, coated-fertiliser and specialised fertiliser, which will greatly increase the utilisation rate of fertiliser improve rural, urban and township ecological environment. The construction of demonstration centre and factory will not only improve environment in the demonstration area, fully utilises resources, but also enhances soil fertility and the comprehensive productivity of agriculture. Fertiliser utilisation rate will increase by 5-10%, yield per unit area will increases by 8-20% and the output-input ratio of crop farming will reach 2.9:1 and above. The price of coated-fertiliser is RMB Yuan 300 per ton higher than that of the average fertiliser, and the net income of manufacturer of coated fertiliser is around RMB Yuan 200 per ton, totally amounting to 2 million Yuan annually. Pollution caused by agricultural wastes and livestock excrement will be controlled and reduced, air and ground water pollution by chemical fertiliser will be also under effective control.

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7. Risks

The implementing agencies have a good reputation for organisation and strength and has strong influence in rural area. This project has good social effect and can enjoy strong support and co-operation of government and related government departments at all levels. The possible barriers for this project are that funds from international assistance may not be in place in time and the domestic instruments are backward, these will be solved by widening and deepening extensive international co-operation.

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