Agricultural Plastic Waste Management Among Farmers in Kwara State

ABSTRACT
Improper disposal of agricultural plastic waste (APW) poses significant risks to agricultural sustainability, biodiversity conservation and the environment. Thus, the study investigated socio- economic characteristics of the farmers, the sources of plastic waste, waste management practice used by the farmers, their attitudes towards waste management practices and the constraints of proper disposal.A total of 187 respondents were selected through three-stage sampling procedure. The Data were obtained through interview schedule. The data were analysed using frequency, mean and multiple regression. The results revealed that the majority(66.2%) of the respondents were male, with mean age of 37.63+11.02. The prevalent(94.1%) source of plastic waste was chemical container. Furthermore, it was revealed that the predominant disposal methods were landfills (36.9%) and disposal in rivers (48.9%). In addition, the findings showed that the respondents exhibited low knowledge level (43.3%) towards plastic waste hazards. Similarly, the study revealed that the major constraints faced by the farmers were lack of collection points (46.5%), inadequate awareness on appropriate disposal methods (77.0%), unaware of the environmental implication of plastic waste (62.0%), inadequate knowledge on alternative uses (65.8%) and unavailability of plastic processing factory (63.1%). It is therefore concluded that landfill is the most utilized plastic waste management practices which has a detrimental effect on agricultural practices. Hence, it is therefore recommended that agricultural extension services should conduct regular training for farmers on the environmental risks of plastic waste and sustainable disposal methods