Abstract
The livestock sector in developing countries is rapidly growing from increasing demand for animal protein, products and services. This growth, however, poses a possible challenge in terms of loss of ecosystem health in terms of environmental degradation from emissions of methane and resultant effluents of dangerous chemical wastes used in farms. This thesis describes the state of governance instruments used for management of chemical waste in smallholder dairy farms in Kenya using a case of Kabete sub-county, Kiambu County. The thesis concentrated on the situational analysis of the types of chemical wastes existing in smallholder dairy farms, the knowledge, attitude and practices of farm workers in regard to management of chemical waste in the farms and how this management interphases with the existing regulatory framework of the chemical management in such farms. The study was designed as a cross sectional descriptive survey that incorporated both retrospective and prospective attributes of the management practices. A random sampling of 100 farm workers was carried out from randomized samples of twenty smallholder farms drawn from the five wards (Gitaru, Muguga, Nyadhuna, Kabete and Uthiru) of Kabete Sub-county. Five key informant interviews of relevant environment officers were also conducted to triangulate the results and obtain information of existing governance instruments. Data was coded and analyzed SPSS® version 23.0 to generate tables, figures and relevance statistics. The main types of chemical wastes existing in smallholder dairy farms were antimicrobials, pesticides, detergents, disinfectants, and herbicides. It was noted that most farm personnel lacked requisite skills (knowledge, attitudes and practices) to effectively manage chemical waste in dairy farms (X2 (5, N=100)=2.15, p=1.63). The interviewed respondents also were also not capacity built within farms to be aware of the existing protocols/processes for management of chemical wastes in dairy farms (X2 (5, N=100)=70.4, p=0.0027). Formal and informal channels of awareness creation is needed to be institutionalized within dairy to capacity build farm owners and farm workers on skills of chemical waste management in order to achieve sustainability in management of chemical waste in smallholder farms in Kenya. Capacity building could be sought through training from companies selling the chemical products, NEMA and/or farmer cooperative societies as suggested by respondents.