ASSESSMENT OF WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON FARMS IN ABEOKUTA ENVIRON, OGUN STATE NIGERIA

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1 ISSN: Print Online FUNAAB 2015 Journal of Natural Science, Engineering and Technology ASSESSMENT OF WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON FARMS IN ABEOKUTA ENVIRON, OGUN STATE NIGERIA *O.J. ADEOSUN, O.D. SHOBAYO,.O.U. DAIRO, A..A. ADERINLEWO AND I.A. OLA Department of Agric. Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria *Corresponding author: adeosunoj@funaab.edu.ng Tel: ABSTRACT The study assessed the waste management practices adopted by farmers in some rural communities around Abeokuta in Ogun State, Nigeria. Seven research questions were raised and answered, using a total of 40 structured questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered, with personal communication, to individual farmers in order to gather pieces of information from farm establishments in the study area. Farms of one hectare of land and above were sampled. The study revealed the methods - others (7.5%). the choice of waste management methods adopted by the farmers was found to be dependent on cheapness (32.5%), common practice around (14.0%), suitability (11.0%) and others (2.5%). The level of awareness of waste regulatory bodies was relatively low (35.0%) in the rural areas. Keywords: Waste Management Practices, Waste Regulator Bodies, Rural Communities in Ogun State, Nigeria. INTRODUCTION Waste management is a critical concern in many parts of the world. Waste has been defined as something useless produced by the same action that produces something useful or a by-product of industrial, agricultural, municipal and mining activities (Adesina, 1983). Ochuko, (2014) also define waste as any material which does not have direct usefulness to the person producing it, which must be disposed. With higher technological input into agriculture, both animal and crop production have been on the increase, which has also increased waste generation. The Society for Environment and Economic Development (SEED Nepal, 2009) reported that billions of tonnes of agricultural waste are generated every year particularly in developing countries where in many cases; agriculture continues to be the main economic activity. In order to develop appropriate strategies for effective farm waste management in the area under study, there is the need to have adequate information on the wastes generated and current management techniques. Although, the Ogun State Government through the Ministry of Environment has established waste regulations and enforced Environmental Sanitation Day in a month for citizens in or- 98

2 O.J. ADEOSUN, O.D. SHOBAYO,.O.U. DAIRO, A..A. ADERINLEWO AND I.A. OLA der to encourage and ensure cleanliness. However, rural areas have not been adequately monitored by the enforcement agent. The aim of this study was to identify the wastes generated and their management practices by farmer in some rural areas in Ogun State, Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHOD The target populations consist of rural areas around Abeokuta. Abeokuta is both the capital and administrative headquarters of Ogun State situated in the South-Western part of Nigeria with coordinates between climate, with double maxima of rainfall between April and July (short dry season in August) and from September to October. The long dry season starts from November. Thus, the land is suitable for agriculture. The study involved a sample size of 40 farms, comprises farms of one hectare and above, of which, 19, 14 and 7 was found in Abeokuta North, Abeokuta South, and Odeda Local Government Area respectively. The methodology adopted for this study includes administration of 40 questionnaires and personal communication with farmers in each of the selected farms. The questionnaires were sectioned into two, namely A and B. Section A: This section covers the general information of the farm indicating the name of the farm, location, local government, short and long-term objectives of the farm enterprise, type of agriculture involved in, land area of farm, and benefits derived from the farm by those in the neighborhood. Section B: This covers the assessment of waste management and practices on each of the selected farms. The questions in this section were on waste generated, present waste 99

3 management practices, reasons for the selected waste management practices, awareness and effectiveness of waste regulatory body and regulations in the area, approximate quantity of waste generated monthly, opinion from farmers on which waste management practices were suitable and requirements for practicing it on their farm. The administered Questionnaires were retrieved immediately after they had been filled. The data collected were analyzed using a statistical programme called Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), the 17.0 version for windows. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Results and discussions were presented using the following format. ASSESSMENT OF WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON FARMS IN... Profile of the farm in terms of location, local government area and farm size. Forms of the wastes generated by the farms. Present waste management practiced on the farms. Selection of the practices waste management system. Awareness and effectiveness of waste regulatory body and regulations. Table 1 gave the frequency counts and percentages of the profile of farms location within the study area. It was observed that more farms were located in Abeokuta North Local Table 1: Frequency Counts and Percentages of the Profile of Farms location within the studied area Frequency Percent Valid Percent Abeokuta North Abeokuta South Odeda Total Cumulative Percent Government Area than the Abeokuta South Local Government Area and Odeda Local Government Area had the list number of farms. About 47% of the farms were involved in animal production, mainly poultry and livestock, 20% into crop production such as cassava, yam, maize, vegetables and oil palm, while about 32.5% of the farms practice mixed farming. This might be due to the popular demand for eggs, and meat (or beef) by the residents in the city; also plant production requires larger hectares of land which is scares due to urbanization that had reduced available land. The limited land available for farming might be responsible for most of the farms to be between small area (less than 2ha) and medium area (2ha- 5ha) farms as shown Figure 1. From Table 3, semi-solid had the highest percentage of the form of the waste generated (40.0%), this comes mainly from poultry 100

4 O.J. ADEOSUN, O.D. SHOBAYO,.O.U. DAIRO, A..A. ADERINLEWO AND I.A. OLA and livestock droppings and palm oil mill effluence. The wastes that were in solid form account for 37.5%, this comprises crop residues, container for farm imputes such as fertilizer, herbicides, animal feeds among others. About 12.5% of the waste generated were in liquid form, this consist majorly of wastewater from cleaning processes on the farm. Table 2: Type of farming practiced in the study area Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Livestock Crops Mixed Farming Total Figure 2: Chart showing the approximate area of the farm land. Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Liquid Solid Semi-solid Total Missing System* Total

5 Table 4 shows different type of waste management practices. Most of the farms investigated practice incineration (80.0%), crop residues; farm imputes containers were part of the waste materials being manage by this practice. This releases a lot of smoke and other toxic particulates into the environment which might pollute the atmosphere, the major of which is carbon dioxide a potential greenhouse gas. About 40.0% of the farms practice re-use of their wastes. Farms practicing re-use of the waste are majorly farms involved in both animal and plant production, where the crop residues such cassava peels were fed to the animals, and ASSESSMENT OF WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON FARMS IN... animal wastes were applied as organic fertilizer to the croplands. However, as this waste decays a lot of methane gas might be released into the atmosphere which contributes to global warming. Animal feed containers too were being re-used for packaging and storing of some farm produce. In addition, farm residues from palm oil production mostly the solid residues like palm kernel shell, pericarp fruit fibres were being used as fuel. On the other hand, some of the farms engage the services of waste contractors (27.5%). While a few percentages of the farms practice burying (15.0%), store (12.5%) and waste such as packaging materials were taking away by suppliers (7.5%) of those agricultural inputs. Table 4: Waste Management Methods adopted by Farmers in the study area S/N Management Practice by No of Farmers Using It % Of Farmer Using it 1 Incineration Waste Contractors Burying or Tipping Storage practice it. This study also seek to know why the selected waste management system were been practiced in the various farms in the area and it was observed as shown in Table 5 that about 32.5% feels it is very cheap to practice, while 35.0% of the farms practice it because it is very common in the area, 27.5% feels it is the most suitable system for their farms, also a few percentage (2.5%) could not state the reason why they Awareness and effectiveness of waste regulatory body and regulations The study also confirmed as shown in Table 6 that 35.0% of the farm establishments were aware of waste regulatory body and regulations in the area and that they have been somehow effective, but about % said that they have not been effective which may be responsible for most farm establishments not complying to the regulations of 102

6 O.J. ADEOSUN, O.D. SHOBAYO,.O.U. DAIRO, A..A. ADERINLEWO AND I.A. OLA the waste body. While about 30% reserved their comments. Table 5: Choice of Waste Management Method Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Cheap Common Suitability Others Total Missing System Total Table 6: Level of awareness of waste regulatory body in the area Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Yes No Undecided Total Missing System Total

7 CONCLUSION Based on the findings of this study, following conclusion could be deduced: The environmental policies related to the collection, storage and disposal of wastes in the country were not adequately enforced in the rural areas. ASSESSMENT OF WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON FARMS IN... of agricultural engineering. Vol. 2 pp Bassi, W. H., Davis, F.G Clay Handbook of Environmental Health (15th Edition). London: Lewis. Ekugo, E.I Public Health and Urban Sanitation. Environ News. 5,7. The practiced waste management system is done without proper coordination therefore, individuals dispose their waste indiscriminately. Based on the findings and conclusion of this study, the following recommendations were for necessary actions towards improving the state and practices of waste management. The waste management should be more coordinated for effectiveness by appropriate government agency. Re-use of the waste would be more environmentally friendly and economical REFERENCES Adedibu A. A Environmental Problems Associated with Urbanisation of Rural Areas in Nigeria; Environmental Issues, vol. 15. pp Adesina H.O Ekulgo, R.W Waste Reduction and Recycling: Practical Planning. Olympia: Washington State Department of Ecology, November. Johnstone, S. Requires more than Good Recycling Habment. Love, T Constructing a coherent cross-disciplinary body of theory about designing and design: Some philosophical issues. Design Studies 23 (3). Ochuko, M. O Solid Waste Management in Obantoko Area of Abeokuta, Nigeria. Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering - - I.B.Bello Imam,(Eds): Proceeding of National Conference on Development and Environment. Ibadan.NISER, pp A.S.A.E American society of agricultural engineers, CIGR Handbook of agricultural engineering volume II (Animal production and aquacultural engineering). Edited by CIGR. The international commission S.E.E.D Society for Environment and Economic Development Nepal. Baseline 104

8 O.J. ADEOSUN, O.D. SHOBAYO,.O.U. DAIRO, A..A. ADERINLEWO AND I.A. OLA Study Report on Assessment of Current Waste Agricultural Biomass Management System and Practices at National and Local Level at Madhyapur Thimi Municipality. Waste line Plastic index.htm. Wikipedia images. images. (Manuscript received: 12th January, 2015; accepted: 26th June, 2015). 105