The Cabinet of Ministers proposes to reduce fines for improper storage of manure

© Yuri Inyakin/PG

The Government wants to reduce the maximum fines for violating the requirements for handling livestock by-products from 450,000 to 240,000 rubles by the second reading of the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses. This was announced by the Deputy Director of the Department of Livestock and Breeding of the Ministry of Agriculture Oleg Lityaykin at a round table in the State Duma on May 29.

On February 16, the State Duma adopted in the first reading the bill of deputies Alexei Gordeev and Vladimir Kashin on liability for improper handling of manure. According to the document, if the rules for storing, transporting, processing and selling manure are violated, officials will be fined 30-40 thousand rubles, and the company – 250-350 thousand with a possible suspension of activities for up to 90 days. For a repeated violation during the year, a fine is provided for officials – 40-50 thousand and for companies – 350-450 thousand.

Agricultural enterprises and farms will be fined if they begin to harvest manure without equipping special sites for this, dump heaps of manure near rivers or fertilize fields near houses, Parliamentary Newspaper wrote earlier. And residents will be able to be held accountable if they fix the real damage that they caused to the soil.

“Now the government apparatus has a draft amendment to the Code of Administrative Offenses, agreed with all interested federal executive authorities (federal executive authorities. – Ed.), where the maximum fine has been reduced from 450,000 to 240,000 rubles,” said Lityaykin.

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He also added that the purpose of the law on livestock by-products was not to put an end to environmental standards, but to free agricultural producers from licensing in the field of waste management, special training and other things.

“As for concrete sites (for storing manure. – Ed.), We gave a million explanations, discussed a lot with the regions – in my opinion, it is much easier to have a site, albeit not concrete, but with a film coating for storing manure, than , which obliged agricultural producers, under the previous regulation, to register the site in the state register as a waste disposal facility with state expertise and everything else, ”Lityaykin said.

The law classifying manure and litter not as waste, but as by-products of animal husbandry, came into force on March 1, 2023. It regulates the entire chain of circulation of such products: storage, processing, processing, transportation, sale and use in agricultural production. In particular, when handling livestock by-products, environmental pollution (soil, forests, water bodies, etc.) is not allowed. It is possible to store such products before their processing, processing only at specialized sites that are not considered waste disposal sites.

Also read about what laws come into force in June.