14 research outputs found
Food intake and dietary diversity of farming households in Morogoro region,Tanzania
The Tanzanian economy depends heavily on agriculture and hence human labor provides much of the power needed for farming activities. This study was carried out to determine the diversity and dietary adequacy of farming households in four selected districts of Morogoro region in Tanzania. Adult household members from 140 households participated in the study. A 24-hour dietary recall, dietary diversity score and frequency of food consumption tools were used to assess and quantify nutrient intake and adequacy of consumed diets in farming households. Tanzania food composition tables were used to compute estimates of the energy intake, macro and micronutrients consumed by farming households. Analysis was done using SPSS version 18 and Microsoft excel version 10. Cereal food group was consumed in relatively large quantities compared to other food groups in the surveyed households. The contribution of cereal group to energy intake was 75-82%, protein 8-16% and fat 9-14%. Stiff porridge made of maize flour was the mostly consumed cereal dish followed by rice. The mean intake of energy per day was inadequate; the intake of energy for men was 1402 kcal/day while for female was 1347 kcal/day meeting only 52% and 72%, respectively of the recommended energy intake. Generally, the consumption of protein from the animal sources was significantly low in all districts. Ninety-nine percent of the households rarely consumed eggs; 83% rarely consumed meat and poultry. Consumption of milk and milk products was inadequate as 92% of the households indicated that they rarely consumed these products. The intake of fat was also low by 53% compared to the recommended intake for adults. The intake of iron, zinc, and calcium was 40, 53 and 64%, respectively, which was not sufficient to meet daily requirements. Low intake of nutrients was generally attributed to inadequate food intake due to low feeding frequency, poorly diversified diets and sub-optimal practices in food preparation and cooking. The results from surveyed areas indicated that all districts are rich in terms of bio-diversity and food availability, nevertheless the consumption of these foods in the study communities was inadequate with regards to quantity and quality. This situation compromises nutritional status and pre-disposes farming households to diseases and infections hence affects work output, labor productivity and wealth generation. Educating farmers on the importance of consuming diversified and adequate diets from different food groups will improve their nutrition situation and stimulate more production hence increased agricultural productivity.Key words: Dietary adequacy, Dietary diversity, Nutrition status, Tanzania farming household
Valuation of rice postharvest losses in Sub-Saharan Africa and its mitigation strategies
Data on rice harvest and postharvest loss in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is scanty making it difficult for stakeholders to appreciate the loss and set priority areas for loss reduction along the value chain. To address this problem, a protocol was developed and validated for postharvest loss (PHL) quantification in SSA. Quantitative losses at each segment were determined by field measurements. Interactive effect of origin of rice (domestic versus imported) and type of processing (white versus parboiled milled) on rice price in 33 markets in Africa was used to estimate qualitative loss for both white and parboiled milled rice. Total PHL for rice in SSA in 2018 is estimated at about US$ 10.24 billion, representing 47.63% of the expected total production. The highest loss recorded was quantitative loss before and during harvesting, followed by qualitative loss along the entire value chain, quantitative loss during milling, parboiling, threshing in that order, with the lowest being quantitative loss during drying. Priority areas to be targeted for PHL reduction in SSA and some loss mitigation tools and technologies piloted or suitable for SSA are proposed
Effectiveness of a nutrition education package in improving feeding practices, dietary adequacy and growth of infants and young children in rural Tanzania: rationale, design and methods of a cluster randomised trial
Nutrient Content And Acceptability Of Soybean Based Complementary Food
Cereal gruels, starchy roots and tubers continue to form the bulk of
staple foods in the world. Though commercial foods of high quality are
available, they are unaffordable by much of the world’s
population. There is need to develop a different approach to offer
families the opportunity to feed their infants improved formulations
with traditional staples. A study was carried out in Morogoro region,
Tanzania, to determine composition and acceptability of soy-based
formulations with banana and cowpeas as traditional staples. Bananas,
soybean and cowpeas were prepared and used to make composite flour.
Soybean were roasted and milled. Fourteen composite flour formulations
were prepared by combining the raw materials in different ratios.
Chemical analyses of individual formulations were made to determine
their proximate compositions. The ranges of the nutrients in the
formulations were: 9.58 to 22.23% (crude protein), 0.14 to 4.56%
(fibre), 1.15 to 5.51% (fat) and 67.61 to 81.91% (carbohydrate).
Blending banana with cowpea alone, addition of 10 to 20% cowpeas in the
formulations improved the protein from 9.58 to 13.74%, respectively,
but was still lower than the level recommended by Tanzania Bureau of
Standards (TBS) and CODEX Alimentarius. Introduction of 10% soybean
instead of cowpeas resulted in improvement of the protein to 17.87%,
which was above the recommended level, indicating its superiority as a
protein source. Such a level of protein in the formulation was quite
encouraging even if there were variations in protein content of
soybeans used in the formulations. There were significant differences
(p<0.05) among formulations for appearance, smell, flavour and
general acceptability. Consistency of all formulations compared
favourably. Complementary foods of good nutritive value can be locally
made by using available food ingredients that complement each other in
such a way that they meet the nutritional requirement of children. For
banana consuming communities, increased consumption of soybean could
improve the nutritional status of their children
Preferences and consumption of pigeon peas among rural households as determinants for developing diversified products for sustainable health
Article of sustainability 2020,Pigeon peas are legumes with a high nutritional value. Existing studies of pigeon peas in
Tanzania mainly examine production and marketing, but little has been documented with respect
to consumer preferences and the consumption of pigeon peas. This study assesses the preferences
surrounding pigeon peas and their consumption as bases for the development of diversified and
shelf-stable products for nutrition and income improvement. This study comprised 303 randomly
selected farming households. Furthermore, 60 farmers participated in six focus group discussions in
the Lindi region. A structured questionnaire and a checklist with guided questions were provided
for data collection. The analysis uses SPSS (V.21), with di erences between groups established
using Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests. The associations were tested using Spearman’s
at p < 0.05. The mean pigeon peas consumption during the harvesting and lean seasons was
80 g/person/day and 18 g/person/day, respectively. The frequency of consumption was higher during
the harvesting season (92%) than the lean (29%) season. The majority of farmers (91%) preferred
to consume the local variety, with 84% of them consuming pigeon peas as stew. Five pigeon pea
recipes exist in the area. The farmers identified availability, taste, source of income, and familiarity as
the factors determining pigeon pea consumption and preferences. With limited recipes and other
barriers limiting consumption, the creation of innovative ideas for the development of diversified
and shelf-stable products fitting their consumption preferences is needed
Adaption of the traditional coffee pulping machine to soybean dehulling
Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 2008, 9(1) : 93 - 100Processing of soybean for human consumption requires wet heat treatment of the beans in
order to inactivate anti-nutritional factors. After hot water treatment or steaming,
dehulling of the bean has always been an uphill task for household processors in Tanzania.
Dehulling is done by hand rubbing, which is tedious and time consuming. The traditional
coffee pulping machine was adapted to dehull boiled soybean. Seven soybean varieties
namely TGX-1876-2E, Bossier, Kaleya, TGX 1805-8E, Sable, Songea and Duicker were
tried. This was a development process whereby three consecutively improved versions of
dehulling machines were tested. The machines were branded Ml, M2 and M3, implying
first, second and third generation, respectively. Bean recovery as a measure of performance
was 74.3, 77.4 and 91.8% for Ml, M2 and M3, respectively compared with 89.7% for
manual dehullingfrubbing. The respective throughput was 8, 10 and 28.2 kg/h compared
with 0.43 kg/h for manual dehulling. The mean dehulling efficiency of the M3 dehuller was
82.4% which was the highest. The M3 dehuller's best performance was due to use of ball
bearings to support the rasping roller axle instead of sleeves and its ergonomically suitable
height. The M3 dehuller could be adopted for soybean dehulling under rural livelihood
conditions but the economics for owning and running it needs to be explored. Its
improvement to make it moiorised is recommended to increase throughput and increase
chances for adoption in medium scale soybean processing
Adaption of the traditional coffee pulping machine to soybean dehulling
Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 2008, 9(1) : 93 - 100Processing of soybean for human consumption requires wet heat treatment of the beans in
order to inactivate anti-nutritional factors. After hot water treatment or steaming,
dehulling of the bean has always been an uphill task for household processors in Tanzania.
Dehulling is done by hand rubbing, which is tedious and time consuming. The traditional
coffee pulping machine was adapted to dehull boiled soybean. Seven soybean varieties
namely TGX-1876-2E, Bossier, Kaleya, TGX 1805-8E, Sable, Songea and Duicker were
tried. This was a development process whereby three consecutively improved versions of
dehulling machines were tested. The machines were branded Ml, M2 and M3, implying
first, second and third generation, respectively. Bean recovery as a measure of performance
was 74.3, 77.4 and 91.8% for Ml, M2 and M3, respectively compared with 89.7% for
manual dehullingfrubbing. The respective throughput was 8, 10 and 28.2 kg/h compared
with 0.43 kg/h for manual dehulling. The mean dehulling efficiency of the M3 dehuller was
82.4% which was the highest. The M3 dehuller's best performance was due to use of ball
bearings to support the rasping roller axle instead of sleeves and its ergonomically suitable
height. The M3 dehuller could be adopted for soybean dehulling under rural livelihood
conditions but the economics for owning and running it needs to be explored. Its
improvement to make it moiorised is recommended to increase throughput and increase
chances for adoption in medium scale soybean processing
Use Of Locally Available Flavouring Materials In Suppressing The Beany Taste In Soymilk
Soymilk is a good replacement of cow's milk in places where cow's milk
is not available in sufficient quantity. Acceptability of this soymilk
as cow's milk substitute is greatly influenced by flavour. Blending
with common fruits like bananas and pineapples and other low cost
ingredients as flavouring agents such as lemon grass, honey or sugar to
suppress the unpleasant flavour in soybean-based products has not been
fully investigated in Tanzania. The objective of this study was to
assess the effect of blending soymilk with pineapple, banana,
lemongrass, honey or sugar on acceptability of the resulting blends.
Sensory evaluation involving 25 semi-trained panelists in two different
studies employed a five point hedonic scale (1=Dislike extremely,
5=Like extremely and 3=Neither like nor dislike) to assess the extent
of liking of the blends. The attributes investigated were colour,
taste, smell, appearance and general acceptability. Pineapple-flavoured
blends were more acceptable than the banana flavoured ones.
Banana-flavoured blends resulted in phase separation that accounted for
the relatively low acceptance. Soymilk from different soybean varieties
also showed variation in acceptability. Regarding overall
acceptability, with the exception of the banana-flavoured milk samples
that were unacceptable or marginally acceptable, soymilk samples from
Kaleya, Duicker and Sable varieties were more acceptable than the rest.
With reference to lemon grass, honey and sugar, mean scores of
appearance of soymilk ranged between 3.5 and 3.8 with cow's milk the
highest (mean score 4.7). Colour ranged from 3.0 to 4.0 for the
products (cow's milk 4.9). The mean score range for odour was 2.8 to
4.2 (cow's milk 4.2), taste 3.2 to 4.6 (cow's milk 4.3) and overall
acceptability 3.0 to 3.8 (cow's milk 4.6). Cow's milk was significantly
(p<0.05) superior in all parameters studied with the exception of
taste, where lemon grass-flavoured the soymilk more (mean 4.6) than
cow's milk (mean 4.3) although there was no significant difference
(p>0.05) between the two products. Common fruits like banana and
pineapple as well as lemon grass and honey could be used in promoting
acceptability of soymilk where cow's milk is either unaffordable or
unavailable or there is lactose intolerance in the community. Increased
use of these beany flavour suppressants and more investigations to
expose other promising flavouring agents are recommended
Food intake and dietary diversity of farming households in Morogoro Region, Tanzania
Journal article 2016, pp. 11295-11309The Tanzanian economy depends heavily on agriculture and hence human labor provides
much of the power needed for farming activities. This study was carried out to determine
the diversity and dietary adequacy of farming households in four selected districts of
Morogoro region in Tanzania. Adult household members from 140 households
participated in the study. A 24-hour dietary recall, dietary diversity score and frequency
of food consumption tools were used to assess and quantify nutrient intake and adequacy
of consumed diets in farming households. Tanzania food composition tables were used
to compute estimates of the energy intake, macro and micronutrients consumed by
farming households. Analysis was done using SPSS version 18 and Microsoft excel
version 10. Cereal food group was consumed in relatively large quantities compared to
other food groups in the surveyed households. The contribution of cereal group to energy
intake was 75-82%, protein 8-16% and fat 9-14%. Stiff porridge made of maize flour
was the mostly consumed cereal dish followed by rice. The mean intake of energy per
day was inadequate; the intake of energy for men was 1402 kcal/day while for female
was 1347 kcal/day meeting only 52% and 72%, respectively of the recommended energy
intake. Generally, the consumption of protein from the animal sources was significantly
low in all districts. Ninety-nine percent of the households rarely consumed eggs; 83%
rarely consumed meat and poultry. Consumption of milk and milk products was
inadequate as 92% of the households indicated that they rarely consumed these products.
The intake of fat was also low by 53% compared to the recommended intake for adults.
The intake of iron, zinc, and calcium was 40, 53 and 64%, respectively, which was not
sufficient to meet daily requirements. Low intake of nutrients was generally attributed to
inadequate food intake due to low feeding frequency, poorly diversified diets and sub-
optimal practices in food preparation and cooking. The results from surveyed areas
indicated that all districts are rich in terms of bio-diversity and food availability,
nevertheless the consumption of these foods in the study communities was inadequate
with regards to quantity and quality. This situation compromises nutritional status and
pre-disposes farming households to diseases and infections hence affects work output,
labor productivity and wealth generation. Educating farmers on the importance of
consuming diversified and adequate diets from different food groups will improve their
nutrition situation and stimulate more production hence increased agricultural
productivity