Gender assessment of poultry waste utilisation among small-scale poultry farmers in Osun State, Nigeria: Exploring the untapped potentials

Many researchers have worked on management of waste for sustainable livestock farming. However, focusing on gender in relation to the potentials of the enormous waste has not received adequate attention. Thus, this study focused on gender assessment of poultry waste utilisation in order to explore its potentials for promoting gender equity in rural livelihood options. The paper describes the socio-economic characteristics of male and female poultry farmers, identifies the waste and their uses, examines farmers’ awareness of the uses, utilisation of poultry waste and explores its potentials across countries. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select small-scale poultry farmers from two Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Osun State based on the preponderance of poultry farms in the area. Snowball sampling technique was used to locate 120 poultry farmers and 20 key informants. Secondary data, interview schedule and guide were used for data collection. Data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed among others that more male were involved in poultry production with small holding flock size. Both male and female farmers had high awareness on the uses of poultry waste, yet utilisation was low. The results of Chi-square analysis showed that sex (χ2 = 49.27; df = 1), level of education (χ2 = 5.853; df = 2) and primary occupation (χ2 = 121.181; df = 5) were related to poultry waste utilisation while years of experience (r=0.654), flock size (r=0.372), farmers’ age (r=-0.365) and income from poultry production (r=-0.237) were significantly related to poultry waste utilisation. Significant difference (F = 8.893; df = 1; p<0.05) exists between male and female levels of poultry waste utilisation. It was concluded that utilisation of poultry waste by male and female farmers was low despite its enormous potentials. Therefore, training intervention with gender consideration is imperative to enhance poultry waste utilization. Key words: Small-scale farmers, poultry waste, utilisation, gender equity, potentials, livelihood options