The livestock giant plans to build 3-5 apartment buildings to raise pigs to reduce emissions in Hanoi

Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, Deputy General Director of BAF Agriculture Joint Stock Company, informed about the first pig-raising apartment project in Hanoi, in the conference on technology solutions for green agriculture, ESG, on June 4.

“The pig farming apartment project is optimal in terms of land use area, cost, labor, and most importantly, it solves the problem of environmental pollution,” Mr. Minh said. Taking into account the land use area alone, this model is 5-8 times more optimal than the traditional way of raising pigs.

Pig farming apartment in Hanoi is BAF’s second project, after a similar project in Tay Ninh. BAF leaders said they plan to implement 3-5 projects, with a scale of 8,400 sows, exporting about 250,000 pigs per year for each project.

Besides, the enterprise integrates the development of neighboring agricultural areas, so that “pigs raise fields and fields raise pigs”. That is, agricultural areas will grow food crops as input for the farm itself. Water and waste from the farm will be circulated to irrigate and fertilize the growing area.

Instead of being discharged into the environment like traditional livestock farming models, wastewater from pig apartments will be reused 25-30% for cleaning, cooling, and deodorizing the main livestock area. The remaining wastewater and waste are converted for irrigation, fertilization, and soil improvement. This enterprise also plans to collect emissions to generate electricity.

At the above scale, they will need about 15-20 hectares for livestock farming and 200-250 hectares for agricultural development.

Last year, BAF emitted nearly 590,000 tons of CO2, an increase of 30% compared to the previous year. They set a net zero emissions target (Net Zero) by 2050.

Agricultural activities emitted about 104 million tons of CO2 in 2020, accounting for 20% of the country’s total emissions. Mr. Pham Hoai Trung, Vice President of the Vietnam Green Transformation Association, said emissions are concentrated in production stages in fields, farms, harvesting, processing, transportation… The main emissions of the livestock industry are methane (CH4) and N2O (from manure and wastewater).

In addition to the impact of reducing emissions, BAF leaders said the pig farming apartment model helps reduce operating costs per unit of product.

BAF is the first enterprise in Vietnam to propose a pig-raising apartment model. Last year, they were approved to develop the first project in Tay Ninh, with an investment scale of 15,000 billion VND, in cooperation with Chinese livestock giant Muyuan. Mr. Minh said the business could start the project this year.

In the submission to the Government for permission to deploy this model in July 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment stated that this concentrated pig farming method is automated, monitored by sensors, and can provide early warning of epidemics. This is especially important in the context of African swine fever’s complicated developments last year. The Ministry believes that in the long term, small-scale livestock farming activities need to be reduced, aiming to expand concentrated pig farming models.