Assessment of livestock production and crop residue utilization in Fashola farming community, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The drop in the production level of crop farmers due to climatic condition suggests the need for diversification. Livestock production, is the closest possible activity that farmers could engage in. Biomass wastes generated from crop farming could serve as input for livestock production. The study assessed livestock production and crop residue utilisation among crop farmers in Fashola farming community, Oyo State, Nigeria. Questionnaire was administered to 84 randomly selected crop farmers. Data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics. Crop farmers were predominantly males (67.9%), married (89.3%) with mean age of 48.3±14.3 years. Most household size (51.1%) had between 9 and 12 persons with the mean farm size of 2.7±1.3 acres. Most farmers (46.4%) had no formal education, 89.2% engaged in crop farming as primary occupation, while majority (69%) were involved in livestock farming as secondary occupation. The mean annual income of the farmers was N164,285.71±279,755.86. Majority (79.8%) had farming experience of over 17 years. Animals raised mostly were chickens (79.3%) and goats (77.6%), others raised were cattle, sheep, turkey, pig and duck. Feed resources utilised in feeding animals were cassava peel, cassava tuber, maize, concentrate, guinea corn together with grazing. Cassava and maize were grown by majority of farmers (100% and 88.1%, respectively) on an average farm size of 10.6 and 6.7 acres, respectively. About 72% of the crop farmers burnt the crop residues generated on the farm, 23.4% gave out crop residues to other livestock farmers while only 4.6% fed residues to own animals. None of the farmers possessed the knowledge of hay and silage production but showed interest in acquiring additional knowledge on forage conservation. Major limitations reported on livestock rearing were access to land (59.5%) and capital (48.8%). The study revealed the non utilisation of crop residues by majority of the crop farmers in Fashola community despite their involvement in livestock production, thus suggesting the need to enlighten farmers on their utilisation and preservation.