International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences
ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 2 Number 7 (2013) pp. 240-248
Poultry waste management practices in selected poultry operations around Gaborone, Botswana
John Cassius Moreki* and Teto Keaikitse
Department of Animal Science and Production, Botswana College of Agriculture, Private Bag 0027, Gaborone, Botswana *Corresponding author e-mail: jcmoreki@gmail.com
A B S T R A C T
This study investigated poultry waste management practices in poultry operations around the City of Gaborone. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that was administered to 25 randomly selected commercial poultry farmers in Kgatleng, Kweneng and South-East Districts. Data were also collected through direct observation and by reviewing secondary sources of data. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 19. Results showed that 80% of the respondents disposed of manure and/litter by giving it away to other farmers, 16% used it as a fertilizer on their own fields, whereas 4% of the respondents disposed of manure/litter in the landfills/dumping sites. The three methods of mortality disposal were landfills (52%), incineration (20%) and burning (20%). With an estimated population of 908 200 chickens reared in the research sites in a year it is estimated that 20 441 tonnes of manure was produced in a year. The challenges in disposing of poultry waste were lack of transport, lack of farmers knowledge of poultry waste management and insufficient space to enable construction of waste disposal pits on farms. This study showed that farmers knowledge of poultry waste management was inadequate.
Keywords
Dumping site; Gaborone; landfill; litter; manure; mortality.