Subcommittee Meeting on Livestock Biomass, Tokyo
On Tue 3 December, the Subcommittee Meeting on Livestock Biomass was held at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Tokyo, Japan. The meeting was part of Netherlands-Japan agricultural dialogue which was established by the Joint Statement on 15 Dec 2016 between the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. During the G-20 Agricultural Ministers Meeting (held in May in Niigata), minister Schouten had a bilateral meeting with her counterpart minister Yoshikawa (https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/landeninformatie/japan/nieuws/2019/05/15/g20-landbouwministers-conferentie). Both ministers agreed to organize a subcommittee meeting about Manure and livestock biomass in the framework of the Circular Agriculture.
The Japanese speakers gave presentations on the following topics:
- Appropriate processing of livestock waste and utilization as manure in Japan
- Promotion for BIOGAS Utilization from livestock Waste
The Netherlands’ delegation gave presentations on the following topics:
- Freek Vossenaar, Special Envoy LNV, Sustainable manure management - policies and measures for circular agriculture
- Jerome Partos, Japan Representative HoSt B.V., Valorization of digestate; Methanation for circular economy
- Katsutoshi Komoto, Business Director DSM, Extract More Value from the Feed For Sustainable Animal Protein Production
The participants from the two countries shared the experience and knowledge on their respective field, and discussed challenges and opportunities for attaining a more circular economy by increasing the use of livestock biomass and promoting a sustainable livestock industry. The meeting proved to be useful in enhancing mutual understanding of the two countries' policies and situations and paved the way for further collaboration in the future.
