The number of livestock farms operating illegally could not be confirmed by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Agriculture despite stringent EU rules necessitating the registration of livestock and holdings. For more than a month, Times of Malta has been chasing replies to questions sent to the secretariat, headed by Roderick Galdes, asking for the number of livestock farms still operating without a permit. These farms had to comply with regulations for on-farm management of slurries, manures and wastewaters six years ago or shut down.
The newspaper has been asking for this information in line with reports emerging on the dumping of slurry on agricultural fields.
Last week, Times of Malta revealed the latest report of slurry dumping in the Manikata area. The dumping of slurry on agricultural fields as fertiliser is illegal. The liquid manure is gathered from cesspit cleaning services at livestock farms, which should instead contain the waste on site and dispose of it through licensed bowsers.
During pre-accession negotiations with the EU, Malta had requested a three-year investment period to give adequate time for livestock farms to construct manure and slurry storage facilities.
Failure to comply is reason to shut down
The Rural Development Plan had anticipated that up to five per cent of farms would be in a position to comply with the EC Nitrate Directive on manure and storage facilities before the three-year investment period 2005 to 2008, according to the Agricultural Waste Management Plan.
Failure to comply meant the farmer would not have access to funding and would have to shut down for operating illegally.
Livestock farms that are non-compliant do not have manure storage facilities on site and, therefore, have no means of containing the waste for disposal. While these have more reason to dispose of slurry illegally, the abuse could also come from licensed farms to save on waste disposal costs.
“Such instances (of slurry dumping) are due to malpractices or abuse from farmers,” a spokesman said, adding that this did not mean the farm was non-compliant on an infrastructural level.
When pressed on the number of non-compliant livestock farms, the spokesman said: “I cannot confirm the number of structurally non-compliant farms.”
Not all problems may be easy to solve
He did say he was informed that “certain farms have criminal proceedings pending, instituted by the sanitary department”.
He felt the need to “make it clear” that all reports were investigated and treated according to law. Follow up inspections were conducted to ensure adherence.
“The government is aware that there are some farms experiencing problems, not all of which may be easy to solve,” the spokesman said, stopping short of defining the extent of the problem.
EU agricultural rules are stringent on compliance and require national databases and annual census on livestock and holdings to ensure food safety.
British company PAN Livestock Services boasts on its website that it developed a national livestock database to satisfy Malta’s EU accession requirements.
The database became fully operational in 2001 and has since been expanded to include registration of holdings and keepers for all livestock species, according to the company.
In 2010, the NSO conducted a census of agriculture, updated by annual censuses on the different livestock sectors and their holdings in accordance with EU rules. Yet, these statistics refer to legal livestock farms. Last year, 290 holdings were engaged in rearing cattle while 105 holdings were engaged in pig production, it said.
Since the government claims the number of illegal livestock farms is not known, Times of Malta is calling on the public to report any they know of to it.