Investigation of Market Women’s Environmental Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour in Nigerian City of Ibadan

Jegede Tosin E.,Sunday A. Itasanmi

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.7n.4p.76

Jegede Tosin E., Sunday A. Itasanmi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.7n.4p.76

Copy DOI

Abstract

This study assessed the environmental knowledge, attitude and behaviour among market women in the Nigerian city of Ibadan, Oyo State. A quantitative research design was adopted and 403 market women were randomly selected from different markets in Ibadan. Questionnaire items adapted from Fah and Sirisena (2014) and Abdullahi and Tuna (2014) were pilot-tested among female artisans in Ibadan. Data collected from the study were analyzed using frequency counts, simple percentages, ANOVA, and regression analysis. Results of the analysis revealed that market women have good knowledge about erosion, water pollution, amongst others but lack knowledge in the area of soil degradation. Market women also have pro-environmental attitude based on their responses and they exhibit environmentally responsible behaviours in the area of tree planting, refuse disposal etc. but display irresponsible environmental behaviour by not switching off electricity gadgets when not in use. The findings also showed that there is a significant effect of environmental knowledge on environmental attitude, environmental attitude on environmental behaviour and the joint effects of environmental knowledge and attitude on environmental behaviour among market women.

Highlights

The term environment is said to have been derived from the word “environ” which literally means “surrounding” and this includes biotic elements like human beings, animals, plants etc and abiotic factors like light, water, soil among others (Mozhi, 2010)
The findings showed that there is a significant effect of environmental knowledge on environmental attitude, environmental attitude on environmental behaviour and the joint effects of environmental knowledge and attitude on environmental behaviour among market women
It can be inferred from the table that market women knows a lot about erosion, water pollution, air pollution, natural resources, sewage treatment, and greenhouse gasses with 72.2%, 66.5%, 64.3%, 53.3%, 31.3% and 53.8% respectively while they have some knowledge about deforestation (39.5%), recycling (31.8%) and waste management (45.4%)

Summary

Introduction

The term environment is said to have been derived from the word “environ” which literally means “surrounding” and this includes biotic elements like human beings, animals, plants etc and abiotic factors like light, water, soil among others (Mozhi, 2010). Due to industrial revolution which brought about huge industrial installations, introduction of modern transport system, urbanization, population explosion, overexploitation of natural resources, poor waste management among many other human activities, have led to a large scale environmental pollution which has affected many people worldwide in the form of global warming, acidic rain, climate change, deforestation, food and water scarcity etc (Manzoor, 2017; Mozhi, 2010). In Nigeria, the unwise use of natural environment as a result of ignorance, poverty, greed, lack of proper environmental education, overpopulation, overexploitation of natural resources, improper waste disposal among the populace has led to the degradation of the environment with its attendant consequences like erosion, flooding, water shortages, drought and dissertation amongst others. It has been established that the higher the environmental knowledge of the populace, the higher the chances of people having a positive attitude and behaviour towards the environment (Norris, 2016)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion