ASSESSMENT OF THE WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG PIG FARMERS IN ABOH MBAISE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF IMO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study provided empirical evidence on waste management practices among pig farmers in Aboh
Mbaise Imo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, identify various waste management practices used by the respondents, ascertain different sources of agricultural information available to the respondents, ascertain the extent of use of the practices by the respondents, ascertain the perceived effect of these practices in the production of pig and ascertain constraints that influences the use of the various waste management practices by the respondents. A multi stage sampling technique used in the selection of 120 respondents for the study. The data were collected with the use of structured questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The major results revealed that the major sources of information to the farmers were fellow farmers (100.0%), extension agents (99.2%), community groups (93.3%), waste disposal agencies (71.7%) and mass media (65.8%). A grand mean of 2.80 affirmed that the pig farmers to a high extent used waste management measures in disposing their waste products. A grand mean of 3.24 which affirms that waste management practices exerted strong effect on pig production in the study area. The result revealed with a grand mean of 3.27 that the respondents encountered several constraints in effectively managing their waste pig waste products. The multiple regression coefficients affirmed that years of education (1%), household (1%), flock size (1%) were the significant determinants of use of waste management practices. The simple linear regression coefficient revealed that the perceived effects of waste management practice was not statistically significant but negatively related waste management practices. The study concluded that pig farmers managed their wastes they used waste management measures in disposing their waste products such as utilized for crop and fish farming, composting, burying and burning to a high extent. Training and retraining programme was recommended to be very necessary for upgrading the capacity of pig farmers in waste management. Extension agencies are encouraged to train and retrain pig farmers on environmental and waste management practices.