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

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&apos;s milk in places where cow&apos;s milk is not available in sufficient quantity. Acceptability of this soymilk as cow&apos;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&apos;s milk the highest (mean score 4.7). Colour ranged from 3.0 to 4.0 for the products (cow&apos;s milk 4.9). The mean score range for odour was 2.8 to 4.2 (cow&apos;s milk 4.2), taste 3.2 to 4.6 (cow&apos;s milk 4.3) and overall acceptability 3.0 to 3.8 (cow&apos;s milk 4.6). Cow&apos;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&apos;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&apos;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