Sustainable Animal Manure Management Strategies and Practices

Animal manure is a valuable resource if handled responsibly but a source of serious challenges and public health concerns if managed inappropriately. Risks associated with animal manure handling could be related to soil, water and air quality. In spite of this, non-sustainable animal manure management practices are still common in some places. Sustainable management of animal manure requires multi-prong approaches and holds several benefits both to the farmers and the general public. The importance attached to the handling and management of manure in several countries has led to the enactment of relevant legislations, regulations, standards and policies to promote sustainable handling of animal manure. Some of these are enacted at community, state, national, regional and international levels. Several techniques ranging from simple, low-cost to complex strategies are available for proper handling of animal manure. The proposed chapter will highlight some unsustainable animal manure handling practices. It will discuss some of the risks associated with irresponsible handling of animal manure as well as some of the measures to promote sustainable animal manure management.