climate change and chicken management

ARE CHANGES IN THE TREND OF CLIMATIC VARIABLES ATTRIBUTABLE TO INCREASING USE OF CHICKEN MANAGEMENT?

 

By Osuntade Olubukola and Adebayo Kolawole

Based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections, (IPCC, 2007) the humid tropical zone of southern Nigeria, which is already too hot and too wet, is expected to be characterised by increase in both temperature and precipitation, especially at the peak of the rainy season with the temperature increases of 0.2 degree to 0.3 degree per decade been observed in the various ecological zones of the country, particularly since 1960s. The projections also revealed that for the tropically humid zones of Nigeria, precipitation increases from about two to three per cent for each degree of global warming may be expected. By implication, it is expected that precipitation will probably increase by approximately five to 20 per cent in the very humid areas of the forest regions and the southern savannah areas. Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions both at the national and international levels principally from methane and nitrous oxide. It is becoming clear that meat and dairy products are the foods carrying the greatest environmental burden, accounting for approximately half of food-generated GHG emissions. However, global consumption of livestock products is growing. Demand for meat and milk is expected to double by 2050 (FAO, 2006).

A study carried out on the influence of selected intensive chicken management practices on climate change in the rainforest of Southwest Nigeria showed the patterns at which chicken management practices among other human activities contribute to the emissions of Greenhouse Gases which eventually leads to changes in climate. A purposive sampling technique was used to select extension officers and livestock researchers to elicit information in the various chicken management practices the farmers in the South Western Nigeria engage in.

A sample of chicken farmers practicing the selected chicken management routines for either subsistence or commercial purposes was also interviewed. Certain frequently used intensive chicken management practices were identified by the extension officers and researchers in the rainforest of southwest Nigeria and this was further corroborated by the farmers. Improper disposal of wastes generated from chicken management contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Southwest Nigeria. The ambient air quality within and around chicken farms in the area was monitored using a combination of in-situ instrumental measurements and sampling with Gilian (GIL AIR) pump/impinger containing absorbing solution (at 4.0 LPM for 20 minutes) and subsequent analysis in the laboratory showed the different gases emitted on different farms at varying distances of 25m and 100m from the chicken farms. It was revealed that gases (CH₄ and NH₃) emitted at 0m from the farm is higher than the one at 25m from the chicken farm and that is also higher than the gases emitted at 100m away for both  CH₄ and NH₃. It was revealed that at different distances, there is an average reduction in the CH₄ and NH₃ on the chicken farms visited.

The reductions in these gases at varying distances were then tested for their significant difference with ANOVA which showed there were significant differences in the gases emitted. It was revealed that the differences in the air Suspended Particulate Matter in in the CH₄ and NH₃ content of the air. Most chicken farmers in Southwest Nigeria are indifferent about issues that relates to their human activities as it affect changes in the climate. This could be because they are not aware that chicken management practices contribute to climate change or they are not properly exposed to the hazards that they are contributing to in the environment. This should call for concern to the researchers to work more on the environmental friendly and less expensive practices that these farmers could use. It is also a call for the extension agents to ensure that some practices are properly done to alleviate the possible environmental problems generated by the recommended practices and they should also bridge the gap between research and the grassroots. It is not enough that the chicken farmers had a perception that there were negative influences of the selected chicken management practices on climate change but the analysis carried out by experts in the study confirmed that perception.

This implies that there are hazardous effects on the chicken farms than at the surroundings more than a 100m radius. Workers at the chicken farms are prone to environmental related diseases than those around. In essence, there should be a way to reduce these gases emitted. Though these gases do not stay dormant in the atmosphere but there are mediations by the nature that reduces the gases. If the poultry activity increases, there are tendencies in the  increases in the CH₄ and NH₃ content in the air; and if the source of the pollution stops, the pollution itself will stop. In most developing countries, there are no pronounced global warming effects compared with the developed countries where there human activities are overwhelmingly greater than the natural effects that mediate against these gases. Projections in Greenhouse gases could be possible based on the assumptions that, there are:

·         No mediations to reduce the gases accumulation in the air

·         Stock size remaining the same over the period of years

·         No availability of green vegetation to take up the content of the gases in the air

·         There is no washing away of the nitrate in the nitrogen cycle by rain

·         No new innovations to mediate the release of the gases

This therefore indicates that there are greenhouse gases emitted in the air that have the tendency to affect human health as activities in the poultry house progresses. Most of the farmers engaged in these chicken management practices cannot connect these two elements of changes in the climate. Different environmental friendly alternative practices were suggested by researchers but there were constraints which made the alternatives not acceptable and practised in the rainforest of Southwest Nigeria. It is therefore a thing of importance to note that, climate change can be attributed to human activities among which are chicken management practices; however most of the chicken farmers are not aware of the connection between chicken management practices and climate change.  This can be curtailed if the environmental friendly alternatives recommended by researchers are introduced through appropriate extension methods to substitute for the traditional ways of managing chicken in rainforest of Southwest Nigeria. There is a need to consciously raise awareness of climate change issues in the shot-run among early career researchers and in the long run a deliberate campaign in schools and universities to focus young minds into investigative enquiries on the climate and how best society should adapt as change occur that are most often irreversible. Most often, stakeholders in climate change issues are very concerned with the adaptation to climate change, while thinking about the farmers’ adaptation to climate changes; but there is an oversight in issues of human activities affecting the changes in the climate, there should therefore also be a proper awareness among the stakeholders in the need to adjust to environmental friendly practices in order to remove the drudgery associated with climate change and chicken management practices.