Abstract:
This study investigates the negative economic importance of malaria on households in
Morogoro rural and peri urban. It specifically aimed at: 1. assessing the extent to which
malaria affects production at the household level. 2. Ranking different factors which
contribute to reduced household income.3. Assessing the manpower lost due to deaths of
adult household members hence affecting the economy. The study was conducted using
cross-sectional research design, structured and standardised interview schedules as well as
personal observation.
Using
SPSS
(Statistical
Package for
Social
Sciences),
descriptive statistics were obtained that is frequencies and percentages in accordance
with the objectives of the study. The study was undertaken in Morogoro Rural District
and peri urban area,
the entire sample size of the population was 100 respondents
whereby 40 heads of households were randomly selected from peri urban and 60 from
Morogoro Rural area. Major negative effects of malaria which were obtained from the
study included reduced households income, reduced households production, reduced farm
performance, effect on family labour. It was clearly shown that Malaria affected more the
Rural areas than Peri- Urban due to the fact that the rural areas where seen to have low
economic status hence their efforts to fight against Malaria was very limited. Because of
that it was obviously seen that the Peri- Urban areas had few death due to Malaria in their
Households because they could better fight against the disease in comparison to the Rural
areas. Not only that but also the Level of Education was seen to low in Rural areas
compared to the Peri –Urban, this brought a very big difference regarding the capability of
fighting the diseases between the Rural and Peri- Urban areas. After all these assessments
it was clearly found that Malaria had bigger negative economic importance on rural
households in relation to Peri – Urban. Since that difference is not very big the
recommendations regarding the efforts which have to be taken in fighting the disease have
to consider not only the Rural areas but also the Peri- Urban and Urban as well.
