Stakeholders’ knowledge, awareness and occurrence of aspergillus species on stored maize in Morogoro municipality and Makambako district, Tanzania
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Date
2022
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Maize is an important staple food crop grown in all regions of Tanzania. In the country,
the crop is used as a source of income to reduce poverty and ensure food security in
various regions. The crop is susceptible to Aspergillus and aflatoxin contamination during
production and storage stages. Such contamination puts the health and well-being as well
as economic status of Tanzanian people at risk by reducing the nutritional value and
palatability of the crop. This study was conducted to determine the occurrence of
aflatoxigenic fungi as well factors predisposing maize stored in Morogoro municipality
and Makambako district to their subsequent contamination. The study also assessed
knowledge and awareness on aflatoxins as well. A total of 226 maize samples were
collected from warehouses from six wards, three from each study area for analysis of
aflatoxigenic fungi. Isolates obtained from the maize samples were identified to species
level by observing morphological characteristics with aid of taxonomic keys. Descriptive
statistical analysis was used to describe the proportional occurrence of A. parasiticus and
A. flavus with respect to areas where the samples were collected. The study found that
only 34 (15%) of the collected samples were contaminated with aflatoxigenic fungal
species particularly Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Incidence of A. flavus
in the collected samples was observed to be relatively higher compared to that of A.
parasiticus, whereby 28 samples were contaminated with A. flavus while only six samples
were contaminated with A. parasiticus. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered
to 226 respondents to assess their knowledge and awareness on aflatoxins and factors
predisposing stored maize to aflatoxin contamination. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 was performed to
determine the statistical significance of responses reflecting factors predisposing stored
maize to aflatoxin contamination by comparison of means among the study groups.Descriptive statistics were presented to describe knowledge and awareness of the studied
population on aflatoxins. The study revealed that majority of the studied areas had little
knowledge and awareness in relation to aflatoxins contamination on stored maize. The
results also showed that other factors such as storage with other crops, mode of storage
and storage duration positively influenced infestation of aflatoxigenic fungi in the stored
maize. The inadequacy of knowledge and awareness reflects the demand of stakeholder
training to provide them with education on ways to mitigate and minimize the chance of
aflatoxin contamination on the crop during storage.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Stakeholders’ knowledge, Morogoro Municipality, Makambako District, Tanzania, Aspergillus species