Perceived Effect of Semi-Intensive system of Cattle Rearing on the Dwellers of Akinyele Community Inakinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State

Abstract

The study assessed the perceived effect of semi-intensive system of cattle rearing on the Dwellers of Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo state. The study objectives examined were the socio-economic characteristics of the dwellers, the coping strategy and the benefit derived from semi-intensive system of cattle rearing in the study area. A well-structured questionnaire was used for the collection of data through a multi stage sampling procedure to select a sample of 104 respondents for the study. The data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages, and inferential statistics such as Chi-square and Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC) to draw inferences between variables of the hypotheses. The results showed that about 53.8% of the respondents were females between the ages of 31- 40 years and are married. Christianity and Islam were practiced at 47.1% and about 37.5% of the respondents had adult education with household size of 5-8 (48.1%). Majority of the respondents (74.0%) practiced farming as their major occupation with about 43.3% of them having trading as other means of livelihood. The invasion of farmland by cattle, destruction of heap, ridges and farm produce, unnecessary defecation and urine causing cholera and water pollution from semi-intensive system of cattle rearing was perceived to have high effect on the dwellers in the study area. The coping strategies of the dwellers with semi-intensive system of rearing cattle occasionally adopted were provision of credit facilities for the construction of large fenced grazing land, security implementation, proper environmental sanitation, and fully implementation of intensive system by the dwellers and organization of committee on disputes settlement. The chi-square analysis indicated that age, marital status, religion, level of education, household size and major occupation were significantly associated with the perceived effect of semi-intensive system of cattle rearing on the dwellers in the study area (p ≤ 0.05), whereas the PPMC analysis revealed that the perceived effect of semi-intensive system cattle rearing had no significant relationship with the benefit of system of cattle rearing on the dwellers (r=0.114, p>0.05). The study therefore recommended that policies that aimed at improving on environmental sanitation programme to ensure disease free environment should be introduced by the government. The cattle rearers should also ensure proper monitoring of their animals in order to establish a healthy relationship amongst the people of Akinyele community.