Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) continues “Fertilizer Water Sharing” Project (the recycled water sharing project) distributing treated water recycled from biogas production systems in CP Foods’ swine farms to neighbor farmers for use in agriculture nationwide for two decades. This project aimed to improve access to community water resources and encourage farmers appreciate water in sustainable ways. For nearly 20 years, the project has been up and running, to share the treated water to farmers to water their crops and help they save fertilizer cost.

Somporn Jermpong, Executive Vice President of CP Foods, said that the company places great importance to sustainable water management, focusing on utilization of water resources in adhering to the Circular Economy principle, and its “CPF 2030 Sustainability in Action”, a CP Foods’ commitment to drive the corporate sustainable development in order to create value for society, restore balance of nature including soil, water, and forests, which is an important starting point of food production and also support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Somporn explained that all CP Foods’ swine farms across Thailand have optimized water use efficiency according to the 3Rs principles (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle), consisting of "Reduce" use freshwater withdrawal, "Reuse" the treated and recycled water for non-production process and "Recycle" water using various treatment technologies to achieve high quality water for both internal and external use with the goal of Zero Discharge. 

CP Foods has applied multiple technologies to improve optimizing use of water in Swine farm operations to achieve the company's commitment to reduce amount of water withdrawal in the food production and amount of wasted water. All swine farms have installed biogas system to recovering animal manure to generate electricity or thermal power for use in farm. 

Meanwhile, swine farms have utilized recycled water from biogas system for farm cleaning and water plants in farm areas and some farms also shared communities nearby farms for agriculture purpose. Farmers utilize treated water to water grass field crops, garden plants and organic vegetables around swine farms nationwide.  The treated water from biogas system in swine farms   have three key plant nutrients which help improves growth and productiveness of plants, thus raising quality and quantity. The treated water or so-called “fertilizer water” help reduces farmers’ expenses on fertilizers, in line with CP Foods aspiration to encourage farmers to appreciate water consumption and reserve natural resources for the friendly environment of all communities.

“CP Foods is proud to help reduce the impact of drought for neighboring farmers. Their productivity also improved thanks to the fertilizer water. Moreover, they become less dependent on chemical fertilizers,” said Mr. Somporn.

He added that, in 2022, 63 farmers used 544,208 cubic meters of treated water from CP Foods’ pig farms, covering 1,601 rai of crop field. As a result of this project, the farmers were enabled to reduce the cost of chemical fertilizers by 1,814,200 baht in total. Most importantly, farmers who have received water for 20 years ago are still using fertilizer water continuously, reflecting the success of this project,” said Mr. Somporn.

Aside swine farms, CP Foods layer complexes also shared the treated water to farmers to use in their cultivation as well. In 2021, a project to share fertilizer water and sludge from Biogas system helped to mitigate impact from drought for the nearby community. CP Foods’ complexes shared 143.5 billion cubic meters of fertilizer water.to more than 103 rai of agricultural land.