QUANTITY, QUALITY AND STORAGE OF HARVESTED RAINWATER FOR POULTRY PRODUCTION IN NORTHERN AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Adequate water supply is a growing constraint for poultry producers because they are not served by government piped water network and individuals must make alternative arrangements for their water needs. Adequate water supply is a growing constraint for poultry producers. Roof-harvested rainwater of adequate quantity and acceptable quality provides alternative supply of water but needs storage during non- rain periods. This study investigates the adequacy of harvested rainwater, quantity and storage requirements as well as quality assessment for small and medium scale layer chicken production in Akwa Ibom State. The research design for the study is basically survey design and experimental design. The instruments used for investigation are questionnaire survey, face to face interview and observation. Experimentation was done in the laboratory to investigate physical, chemical and microbiological samples of rain water from the households in Akinima community. Monthly rainfall, water use, housing characteristics and average roof catchment areas data were input to the mass curve principle and used to predict the maximum storage for the production scales. The dimensionless graph principle was then employed to scale down the maximum storage to the required storage. Average demand in all the LGAs in the study was less than 50% and 42% of supply for 500 and 1000 chicken population respectively. Water quality index assessment of the rainwater based on WHO standards showed excellent quality ranging between 0.876 – 38.453 in all the LGA’s. These findings establish that rainwater can be harnessed for poultry production in the study area. The study can be extrapolated to other areas.