FITCA-EMMC workshops on information exchange and training with rural communities on environment: Eastern Uganda. W1

Four workshops were held in four sub counties in the districts of Soroti, Tororo, Iganga and Kamuli. Five to seven villages were involved in each sub county. Participatory approach was used to gather the farmers' perception on four environmental themes; Forests and woodlands, wetlands and water, land and soils and livestock and wildlife. The main issues that have caused changes in each theme were: deforestation; cultivation of wetlands and drying up of swamps; land degradation and low productivity; livestock diseases and habitat destruction. 5 The communities related the changes to their effects on human livelihood and incidences of sleeping sickness and Nagana. Majority of these changes have had negative impacts on livelihood, thus making the communities poorer than before. Loss of habitat due to over exploitation of forests and cultivation of wetlands have affected tsetse ecolo gy and resulted in sleeping sickness and Nagana. The activities being undertaken by FITCA in reclaiming tsetse infested areas and making them available for agricultural activities are short term benefits whereas land degradation and the resultant cycle of poverty are the long term outcomes, unless steps are taken now to address the expected land use changes and the land carrying capacity. In this regard the initiative to encourage zero grazing and pasture development may help to address the problem of land degradation. The communities developed a suite of recommendations and indicators for each theme. It is important that follow up meetings be done to see the development of action plans at village level to implement these recommendations in order to arrest the downward spiral of the environment. Involvement of communities in monitoring, management and conservation is important in order to have a sustained conservation effort, as these communities are the ones bearing the full impacts of the changes that have taken place in the environment. (Résumé d’auteur

Feedback workshops with communities in Eastern Uganda. W6

1. Two-day workshops were held in each study site in the four districts of Soroti, Tororo, Iganga and Kamuli. Four to five villages, who attended the last workshop were invited for this second round of workshops. Forty -five to eighty percent of those who attended the first workshop were present. 2. The discussions especially during the first day of report presentations were lively and helped to bring those who were not in the first workshop on board. The deliberations in each theme were demonstration of the issues that were central to the communities’ interest. 3. One issue that kept on recurring is population increase and failure of the communities to deal with it. Although family planning is an accepted method of population control in the world, some of the communities were not free to discuss it and even at family level it may not be discussed. There is need therefore, for the communities to be sensitized on methods of family planning in order for them to make informed choices while discussing this problem. 4. FITCA-EMMC project is coming to a close. Before it winds up activities in the region, it is important to hold a stakeholders’ workshop to entrust the work of environmental monitoring and management in these communities to other organisations that will be able to provide the financial resources to see the work progresses and also external monitoring to strengthen the internal monitoring system put forward by the communities. (Résumé d'auteur

Safe Food, Fair Food: Participatory risk analysis for improving the safety of informally produced and marketed food in sub-Saharan Africa

Millions of small-scale farmers efficiently supply the great majority of the meat and milk market in Africa. Surging demand for livestock products (the “livestock revolution”) is an unprecedented opportunity for setting poor farmers on pathways out of poverty, but to gain maximum benefit they must be able to produce safe food of acceptable quality. Currently, most smallholder livestock products are sold in informal markets where conventional regulation and inspection methods have failed and where private or civil sector alternatives have not emerged: as a consequence, most livestock-derived food products contain high levels of hazards. Quantitative risk-based approaches for assessing and managing food safety offer a powerful new method for reducing the enormous health burden imposed by food borne disease, while taking into account other societal goals such as pro-poor growth. However, application to food safety problems in Africa has been limited. We discuss some of the constraints and a new approach which can help overcome these: Participatory Risk Analysis, and give examples of its current application in west, east and south Africa

Analysis of public health risks from consumption of informally marketed milk in Kenya

Despite an unfavourable policy environment against informal milk markets, these markets account for most milk sales in Kenya. Convenient delivery and lower prices are the principal benefits for poor consumers. Current milk handling and safety regulations in Kenya are derived from models in industrialised countries. These may not be appropriate for local market conditions. An important step in targeting policies better is to collect quantitative and qualitative information about milk-borne health risks under different marketing situations. Preliminary results of assessments of milk quality and handling practices of informal milk market agents and consumers in central Kenya show very low apparent prevalence of zoonotic health hazards in milk from the smallholder herds that contribute most marketed milk. Higher bacterial counts were associated with longer market chains and distance to urban areas. Most (up to 80%) of samples did not meet national bacterial quality standards. Over 96% of consumers boiled milk before consumption mainly to lengthen shelf life but also for health reasons. The most important health risks were judged to be from anti-microbial residues found in up to 16% of milk samples tested

Costs of aflatoxin in the Kenyan dairy value chain

Kenya's dairy industry plays an important economic role in the life of farmers, milk processors, milk traders, feed manufacturers and traders. This industry contributes 14% of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and 3.5 % of the total GDP. In Kenya, the dairy sector, and especially milk production, is exposed to different risk contamination factors which will not only affect the product quality but also its innocuity. Economic costs of aflatoxin contamination could be split into two categories: direct market costs and human health costs. Using agro-ecological zones, five counties in Kenya — Kwale, Isiolo, Tharaka Nithi, Kisii, and Bungoma — were selected randomly for this study. For direct costs, questionnaires were directed to feed retailers, milk producers, milk traders and feed producers. Food and feed samples (99 dairy feed, 286 milk, 386 staples (maize, millet, sorghum groundnuts and cassava) were collected for laboratory aflatoxin analysis (ongoing) to estimate the aflatoxin daily consumption rates in people and dairy cattle. In the case of health costs, primary and secondary data are being collected to assess the estimated cost of aflatoxin in Kenya. Following Rico-Sole (2012) and introducing an additional weighting factor related to the proportion of aflatoxin provided by milk consumption, the health expenditure costs related to aflatoxin through milk will be estimated. It is possible to assess health costs using secondary data provided by the national health statistics in Kenya (health expenditure, diseases, number of the population, number of exposed population etc.) and fixing values for the remaining variables on the basis of literature review. However, the uncertainties about the actual health impacts of aflatoxin exposure in a population make it difficult to fully evaluate the burden. The approach in this study follows the risks of exposure at different steps in the dairy value chain and includes consumer surveys. This will provide increased knowledge about the risks and a basis for improved assessments of the costs

Aflatoxin M1 survey in dairy households in Kenya

Kenya has the largest dairy herd and highest per capita milk consumption in east Africa. Kenya has also experienced multiple aflatoxicosis outbreaks in recent years, and several surveys have reported high levels of contamination in maize. When lactating cows consume feed which is contaminated with aflatoxins, they excrete a metabolite (aflatoxin M1) in their milk. This metabolite is injurious to human health, but there is no current information on the risk to human health posed by aflatoxins in milk in Kenya. To fill this gap, a risk assessment is being conducted in four agroecological zones in Kenya (semi-arid, temperate, sub-humid and humid). In 2014, we conducted a survey of households in these four zones. We surveyed 286 households in 37 villages and in each household administered a questionnaire and collected feed and milk samples. In all, 280 milk samples were analyzed using competitive ELISA. The limit of detection was 2 parts per trillion (ppt). Overall, 59 per cent of all samples had aflatoxin below the limits of detection, 32 per cent of samples had aflatoxin between 2 ppt and 50 ppt while 9 per cent exceeded the WHO/FAO limit of 50 ppt