CRI听力:Turning Agricultural Waste Into Gold

Reporter: China produces more than 800 million tonnes of crop straw and stover every year.

In the past, most of this biomass had been burnt in open fires resulting in heavy air pollution.

Although scientists and engineers have found other profitable uses for these tonnes of agricultural waste, like generating bio-fuel or using them as building materials, many farmers are still unaware of how to make money with it.

The International Green Economy Association, a Beijing-based NGO, is taking action to tackle the problem.

Deng Jihai is the Secretary-General of the association.

"Our research findings show that those regions that have a high rate of crop straw utilization actually have very low-levels of efficiency, and this has slowed down the rate of GDP growth. Hence, the biggest most important focus of our action plan is to make this industry more profitable, making organic waste processing a key sector of the green economy."

It is estimated that if China could reduce crop straw burning by 200 million tons each year, it would lead to a drop of carbon dioxide emissions by about 214 million tons. A large scale reduction in straw burning activities could also reduce the possibility of fire hazards, further saving an estimated 100 billion yuan.

On the other hand, if crop straw can be processed and used in the manufacturing of biodiesel, organic fertilizer, bio-feed and even used to as a building material instead of wood, this could help to increase a farmer's income by 1800 to 2400 yuan per acre of cropland.

The International Green Economy Association is determined to assist farmers to convert their agricultural waste into clean bio products.

Deng Jihai explains:

"This year, we'll accelerate to develop the industry of comprehensive utilization of crop straw. This project aims not only to tackle the soil erosion and air pollution issues, including smog, as a result of crop straw burning, but develop it into a new industry instead of mere utilization."

A conference on the industrial development of crop straw resources' will be held in Ulanhot in Inner Mongolia in mid-June. It will bring together high-tech enterprises and agricultural scientists from China and abroad to come up with effective ways to turn agricultural waste recycling into a thriving industry.

For China Drive, I'm Xu Fei.