{"title":"Benefits, concerns and prospects of using goat manure in sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"Soul Washaya, Dorine D. Washaya","doi":"10.1186/s13570-023-00288-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Livestock production has undergone an industrial revolution over the past few decades. This has resulted in the enormous generation of livestock manure, particularly in agro-pastoral systems. Agricultural productivity in these systems largely depends on livestock manure. However, some of these communities are struggling with goat manure disposal. In addition, livestock manure requires proper treatment before application to agricultural land, because it contains toxic heavy metals and pathogenic microorganisms. The review aimed to demonstrate that poor manure management has environmental consequences; thus, interventions that will promote local community livelihood benefits from animal wastes are germane. In many other communities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), horticulture or crop production is minimal, due to erratic rainfall hence, most of the manure lies idle in abandoned kraal pens or is heaped outside the pens with no designed plan. Manure should be viewed as a resource, rather than a waste product. The environmental consequences associated with such manure management are not known and should be probed further. Deliberate efforts to explore the land and environmental risks associated with the non-use of livestock manure are germane to promoting environmental stewardship. The use of manure as feedstock for anaerobic digesters offers the greatest potential for sustainable management in SSA.","PeriodicalId":46166,"journal":{"name":"Pastoralism-Research Policy and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Pastoralism-Research Policy and Practice","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-023-00288-2","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Livestock production has undergone an industrial revolution over the past few decades. This has resulted in the enormous generation of livestock manure, particularly in agro-pastoral systems. Agricultural productivity in these systems largely depends on livestock manure. However, some of these communities are struggling with goat manure disposal. In addition, livestock manure requires proper treatment before application to agricultural land, because it contains toxic heavy metals and pathogenic microorganisms. The review aimed to demonstrate that poor manure management has environmental consequences; thus, interventions that will promote local community livelihood benefits from animal wastes are germane. In many other communities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), horticulture or crop production is minimal, due to erratic rainfall hence, most of the manure lies idle in abandoned kraal pens or is heaped outside the pens with no designed plan. Manure should be viewed as a resource, rather than a waste product. The environmental consequences associated with such manure management are not known and should be probed further. Deliberate efforts to explore the land and environmental risks associated with the non-use of livestock manure are germane to promoting environmental stewardship. The use of manure as feedstock for anaerobic digesters offers the greatest potential for sustainable management in SSA.
期刊介绍:
Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice is an interdisciplinary and peer-reviewed journal on extensive livestock production systems throughout the world. Pastoralists rely on rangelands and livestock for their livelihoods, but exhibit different levels of mobility and market involvement, and operate under a variety of different land tenure regimes. Pastoralism publishes research that influences public policy, to improve the welfare of these people and better conserve the environments in which they live. The journal investigates pastoralism from a variety of disciplinary perspectives across the biophysical, social and economic sciences. This is not applied research in the traditional sense, but relevant research, sometimes even basic research, with the capacity ultimately to change the way practical people do business. Predicting what kind of research will fulfil this role is virtually impossible. What we can do is keep policy makers, practitioners and pastoralists talking to scientists and researchers and aware of each others'' concerns.