Perceived Health Hazards of Low-Quality Irrigation Water in Vegetable Production in Morogoro, Tanzania
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Date
2015-12-25
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Canadian Center of Science and Education
Abstract
This study assessed the perceptions of vegetable farmers, traders, consumers and key informants on the health
hazards of using low-quality water in irrigation vegetable production in Morogoro, Tanzania. Methods used to
collect data were a survey involving all farmers in Changarawe village and Fungafunga area using low-quality
water for irrigation vegetable production (n=60), consumers of low-quality water irrigated vegetables (n=70) and
vegetable traders selling low-quality water irrigated vegetables (n=60), focus group discussions (n=7) and key
informant interviews (n=25). The study employed cross sectional research design. Descriptive statistics were
used to calculate mean, frequencies and percentages while Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis H-test
assessed the association between social-demographic variables and respondents score on the health hazard
perception scale of using low-quality water in vegetable production. Results showed skin itching, fungal diseases,
bilharzias and worm infestation as among the perceived health hazards in using low-quality irrigation water.
Health hazard perception differed among groups of farmers, consumers and vegetable traders (p<0.001). The
mean ranks of the groups indicated that farmers perceive less health hazards in using low-quality water (mean
rank = 147.98) compared to consumers (mean rank = 72.68) and vegetable traders (mean rank 69.64). More
health hazards were perceived by Fungafunga farmers compared to farmers from the Changarawe village
(p<0.001) while female farmers perceived less hazards in using low-quality water than male farmers (p < 0.05).
Consumers with formal education perceived more health hazards than consumers with no formal education (p <
0.001) while vegetable traders from Fungafunga area perceived more health hazards in selling low-quality water
irrigated vegetable than vegetable traders from the Changarawe village (p<0.001). These findings demonstrate
the need to design health hazards minimization interventions for specific target group.
Description
Keywords
agriculture, health hazard perception, low-quality water, Tanzania, vegetable production, wastewater irrigation