Chicken broiler production

Chicken broiler production is one of the most progressive animal enterprises in the Philippines today. The poultry industry began as a backyard enterprise but has shifted to the formation of very large integrated contract farming operations. Ecological Implications Livestock production impacts on the environment through possible effects on surface and ground water quality, gas emissions from animal wastes, and unpleasant odors arising from the enterprise. Manure management is less problematic in poultry enterprises, where manure management does not usually entail wet disposal as in piggery enterprises, and where the chicken dung is often routinely collected for conversion into organic fertilizer or fish feeds. Gases emitted in livestock enterprises include ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The latter three contribute to atmospheric changes that lead to global warming. Unpleasant odors emanating from a livestock enterprise are a function of the scale of operation and sound manure management. It is likely that the increasing scale of operation in livestock enterprises in the past years has also intensified the adverse environmental impacts of the industry. The challenge is to constantly develop more efficient and effective technologies for managing animal wastes tailored to different scales of production, even as various means of converting such wastes to useful products (e.g. biogas, fertilizer) have been in use for many years.