Neighbourhood Acceptability of Poultry Farms Located in Residential Areas in Nigerian Metropolis

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the environmental effect of poultry farms located among residents of some metropolitan town of Nigeria. Data were collected using structured questionnaires to interview 90 farmers and 270 residents in the neighbourhood of the poultry farms in the ratio 1:3 in each of the selected agro-ecological zones. The study was conducted in three agro-ecological zones in igeria. Sabon Gari Local Government of Kaduna State, Jos South Local Government of Plateau State and Ibadan Municipal Local Government of Oyo State were purposively chosen in the orth West, orth central and South West agroecological zones, respectively for the study because of high volume of poultry production enterprises in these locations. Questionnaires were administered to neighbours within 200 m2 radius of poultry farms. Issues focused included: socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, level of acceptability of poultry production by the neighbours and environmental implication of poultry production. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentage were used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents while Pearson correlation was used to establish the relationships between mode of waste disposal and neighbours’ acceptability of poultry farm location in their neighbourhood. A large percentage (74.1%) of the residents found the activities of poultry production in their neighbourhood very repulsive. Air (64.4%), oise (31.1%) and water (4.4%) pollution were indicated by the neighbours as the major problems encountered. Adoption of technologies that can keep poultry litters dry and odourless was low (24.4%) among poultry farmers. There was great discomfort experienced by residents due to poultry production in their neighbourhood. It was recommended that farmers should be encouraged to adopt technologies that can keep poultry litters dry and odourless. In addition, poultry farm locations should be sited far away from residential areas.

Keywords: Poultry Farms, Acceptability, Waste management, Residents, Nigerian Metropolis