Environmental challenges and protection practices among women of Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper dealt with environmental challenges and protection practices among the women of Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria, using primary data. The study was carried out in the 10 communities of the LGA. The population for the study comprised 2,604 women who were registered as farmers in each of the communities. Simple random sampling was used to select 180 participants; 18 from each community, using ±7% precision. A questionnaire was used to collect data which was analysed using mean and standard deviation. The acceptance point for the items was from the mean of 2.50. The study found that gully erosion has taken much of the land space meant for economic activities (3.45), people’s homes have been sunk by gully erosion (3.12), food production has been reduced by erosion problems (3.20), community’s resources have gone into the management of gully erosion (3.50), and that gully erosion reduces the number of economic trees (3.12). However, women have built drainages to check gully erosion (3.45), participated in the planting of trees to check gully erosion (3.12), and built underground tanks to collect rain water from the roofs of houses (3.22). Also, women farmers encouraged mixed cropping (3.40) and the planting of trees (3.60), and participated in filling sand in bags to check new erosion sites (3.43). Recommendations made are that the local  government authorities should stop all human activities that could lead to gully erosion. There should be intervention by the government through scientific and technological means of gully erosion control, since the local practices of the women were not enough in ensuring the protection of the environment. The practices adopted by the women, such as, planting of trees, building drainages, building underground tanks to collect rain waters from the roof of houses should be encouraged. More tree planting activities should be encouraged as well as mixed cropping. Non-governmental organizations should provide assistance for erosion control and management in terms of campaigns and awareness as well as demanding that the state government comes to the aid of the people to control the environmental challenges.

Keywords: Environmental challenges, practices, environmental protection, gully erosion, women empowerment and sustainability