Stakeholders’ knowledge, awareness and occurrence of aspergillus species on stored maize in Morogoro municipality and Makambako district, Tanzania
| dc.contributor.author | Mabruki, Fadhili | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-03-13T10:03:11Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-03-13T10:03:11Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022 | |
| dc.description | Dissertation | en_US |
| dc.description.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. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/5000 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Sokoine University of Agriculture | en_US |
| dc.subject | Stakeholders’ knowledge | en_US |
| dc.subject | Morogoro Municipality | en_US |
| dc.subject | Makambako District | en_US |
| dc.subject | Tanzania | en_US |
| dc.subject | Aspergillus species | en_US |
| dc.title | Stakeholders’ knowledge, awareness and occurrence of aspergillus species on stored maize in Morogoro municipality and Makambako district, Tanzania | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |