CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Poultry plays an important economic, nutritional and socio-cultural role in the livelihood of poor rural households in many developing countries, including Nigeria. Poultry are
birds that include fowl, turkey, duck, goose, ostrich, guinea fowl, among others, which render not only economic services but contribute significantly to human food as a primary supplier of meat, egg, raw materials to industries (feathers, waste products). Source of income and employment to people compared to other domestic animals (Demeke, 2004).Poultry are efficient converters of feed to egg and meat within a short period of time. In terms of nutritive value, poultry egg ranked second to cow milk. Agriculturists and nutritionists have generally agreed that developing the poultry industry of Nigeria is the fastest means of bridging the protein deficiency gap presently prevailing in the country (Amos, 2006). Poultry production is seriously affected by climate change.
Climate is the average weather condition in a given area over a long period of time. A description of a climate includes information on, the average temperature in different seasons, rainfall, and sunshine. Climate according to Schwartz (2005) is the long-term average of weather, typically averaged over a period of 30 years. Some of the meteorological variables that are commonly measured are temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, and rainfall precipitation. In a broader sense, climate is the state of the components of the climate system, which includes the ocean and ice on Earth. The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain, and altitude, as well as nearby water bodies and their currents. Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average. The effect of climatic changes on poultry production will manifest from a generalized rise in temperatures and humidity which may provide a good medium for fungal and bacteria growth, high temperature will encourage more evaporation to the air and thus encourage the buildup of microbes.
Poultry production is an important and diverse component of any country agriculture. Poultry products including eggs, chickens and turkey meat which are healthy part of diet of most in Nigeria. In 2009, nearly 145,615 farms were producing poultry and its products (broilers and turkey, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) while broilers chickens production is concentrated primarily in the western and southern part of the country. Turkey production occurs primarily in northern part of the country while eggs production is distributed throughout the country.
Modern poultry production occurs primarily in enclosed building to protect the birds from wild birds. This has allowed farmers to greatly increase production efficiency which significantly reducing the amount of labour regard. As with pork production, this has resulted in environment changes with production of layer volumes of manures in much smaller areas. (United State Environmental Protection Agency (UEPA), 2000) The term poultry refers to all species of domestic birds. They include chicken, duck, turkey, guinea fowl, pigeon and geese. These birds are kept by farmers to serve different purposes.
Poultry are raised mainly for meat and egg production. Other poultry products are faeces as manure, manure, feathers among others. Poultry has been known to contribute about 10% of the total national meat production and experts have discovered that poultry production among other livestock is the fastest means of reducing protein deficiency in Nigeria.
When ambient temperature is high, chickens have higher energy (feed) needs than when in thermo neutral environments. Major losses result from a less efficient conversion of feed to meat, which detrimentally impacts poultry health and productivity (Olanrewaju, Purswell, Collier, & Branton, 2010). Poultry flocks are particularly vulnerable to climate change because there is a range of thermal conditions within which animals are able to maintain a relatively stable body temperature in their behavioural and physiological activities. Hence, birds can only tolerate narrow temperature ranges to sustain the peak of their production for human consumption and any unpredictable climatic changes will therefore trigger a series of adjustment and readjustments by livestock and poultry birds in the struggle for survival which may have negative consequence on the viability of poultry production. These are the environmental conditions affecting the performance and health status of chicken include temperature, relative humidity, light, sunshine prevailing at a given time, housing system and ventilation (Elijah and Adedapo, 2006). Ambient temperatures significantly influence the survivability and performance of the poultry production. According to Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) (2010), as the ambient temperature increased to ≥34oC the mortality due to heat was significantly high in meat type chickens by 8.4%, the feed consumption of the chickens decreases from 108.3g/bird/day at 31.6oC to 68.9g/bird/day at 37.9oC, the egg production also decreased by 6.4% as compared to their standard egg production.
Climate change alters global disease distribution, affects poultry feed intake, encourage outbreak of diseases which invariably affects poultry output (egg and meat) and also cost of production (Guis, Caminade, Calvete, Morse, Tran, & Baylis, 2011). Elijah and Adedapo (2006) reported in their study that high rainfall and relative humidity provides a conducive environment for breeding of parasites that causes out break of diseases which invariably reduces egg production. They further reported that temperature reduces the feed intake of poultry birds because more energy is needed to conserve the heat caused by high temperature, hence, a decreased in the rate of feed intake. Before now, Imo Sate has good climatic elements for poultry production especially its moderate temperature range. Research efforts on effects of climate change on poultry production will contribute positively to knowledge of the problem climate change poses to poultry sector that bears the contribution to the economy of the developing countries in the supply of protein to a large number of populations and also the source of livelihood for the rural populace.
Poultry convert feed to egg and meat within a short period of time. Developing the poultry industry in Nigeria will be the fastest means of bridging the protein deficiency gap prevailing the country.
Ahaotu, Nwafor, Onyebuchukwu, & Okpara (2019) stated that as the ambient temperature increased to 34oC, the mortality due to heat will be the internal body temperature of domesticated gallinaceous birds (chickens) at 106°F to 108°F is measurably higher than that of mammalian livestock and humans (97°F to 102°F) Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth. Climate change may be qualified as anthropogenic climate change, more generally known as "global warming" or "anthropogenic global warming". Climate change has both direct and indirect impacts on poultry production which are exploited commercially. Direct effects act on physiology and behavior and alter growth, reproductive capacity, mortality and distribution. Indirect effects alter the productivity, structure and composition of the area on which broilers depend for food. However, even though the year-on-year rate of anthropogenic climate change may seem slow, this is very rapid compared with previous natural change and the accumulative value produces a significant difference from the "natural" state quite quickly. Climate change impacts such as more frequent and severe floods and droughts will affect the food and water security of many people.
It is now widely accepted that climate change is no longer simply a potential threat, it is unavoidable; a consequence of 200 years of excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel combustion in energy generation, transport and industry, deforestation and intensive agriculture (IPCC, 2007). IFAD and other development agencies have recognized climate change as one the greatest threats facing mankind today (IFAD, 2007; World Bank, 2010) and have highlighted the fact that the poorest and most vulnerable will be disproportionately affected by its impacts (IFAD, 2008). Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture have contributed little to the causes of climate change but will be amongst the first sectors to feel its impacts. Some anticipated consequences include falling productivity, species migration and localized extinctions, as well as conflict over use of scarce resources and increased risks associated with more extreme climatic events such as hurricanes. These result from direct impacts on broilers themselves. In general the consequences of climate change will be negative for birds at low latitudes.
Statement of the Problem
Climate change has been recognized as the foremost environmental problem of the 21st century and has been a subject of considerable debate and controversy. It is predicted to lead to adverse, irreversible impacts on the earth and the ecosystem as a whole. Although it is difficult to connect specific weather events to climate change, increases in global temperature has been predicted to cause broader changes on poultry production. Elijah and Adedapo (2006) reported in their study that high rainfall and relative humidity provides a conducive environment for breeding of parasites that causes outbreak of diseases which invariably reduces egg production. They further reported that high temperature reduces the feed intake of poultry birds because more energy is needed to conserve the heat caused by high temperature, hence, a decreased in the rate of feed intake. Also, Poultry flocks are particularly endangered to climate change due to a range of thermal conditions which affects the animals’ behavioural and physiological activities. Hence, birds can only tolerate lowly temperature ranges to sustain the peak of their production for human consumption. The environmental conditions affecting the performance of chicken include temperature, relative humidity and light at a given time. Generally, broiler production in developing countries is faced with numerous problems and chiefly amongst are lack of skills and equipment to produce more efficiently, lack of information on local markets, high mortality rate, high cost of feeding and poor breeds of chicks which dwarfed significantly the production and productivity of the enterprise.
The focus of this study is therefore to examine the effect of climate change on poultry production in Mbaitoli Local Government Area in Imo State.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to examine the perceived effect of climate change on poultry production in Mbaitoli Local Government Area in Imo State. Specifically, the study will seek to;
· Examine the effects of climate change on poultry egg production pattern in Mbaitoli L.G.A.
· Determine the effects of climate change on feed-grain availability.
· Determine the effects of climate change on poultry disease distribution
· Discover the suitable strategies for alleviating the effect of climate change on poultry production
Significance of the Study
This study will be of immense benefit to the government, to agricultural extension workers, to the farmers, and to future researchers
To the Government: The information will help government to encourage and support farmers in production activities. The knowledge of the findings would help the government to make policies on how to check the effects of climate change on agriculture in the Imo State region and Nigeria in general.
To Agricultural Extension Workers: The study will provide information to agricultural extension workers on adaptation strategies, which they could teach the farmers to adapt to in such situations. One of the purposes of the study is to discover the suitable strategies for alleviating the impact of climate. The information would serve as a body of knowledge for the agricultural extension workers who teach the farmers on improved farming practices.
To the Farmers: The findings of the study would help agricultural extension workers to reduce the impact of climate change on poultry production. The study will suggest to the farmers suitable adaptation options in coping with climate change effects on agriculture. An understanding of the impacts of climate change would help the farmers to mount appropriate strategies to keep poultry production profitable to matching the varying trend in farming activities.
The study could be used as a resource material on climate change and its impact on agriculture for researchers who may be interested in researching on related topics. The research is equipped with the findings on the impacts of climate change on poultry production and farming families as well as strategies for coping with the change which could beef up the literature in their studies.
Research Questions
1. What are the effects of climate change on poultry egg production pattern in Mbaitoli L.G.A?
2. What are the effects of climate change on feed-grain availability?
3. What are the effects of climate change on poultry disease distribution
4. What are the suitable strategies for alleviating the impact of climate change on poultry production?
Scope of the Study
This study is limited to the perceived effect of climate change on poultry production in Mbaitoli Local Government Area in Imo State. The study will be delimited to 150 poultry farmers in Mbieri, Ifakala, and Orodo in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.
0 comments:
Post a Comment