Assessing social vulnerability to drought in South Africa: Policy implication for drought risk reduction

Muyambo, Fumiso; Jordaan, Andries; Bahta, Yonas T.

doi:10.4102/jamba.v9i1.326

Cited by 39 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Of concern was that a high percentage of consumers had an education level below grade 9, which is the minimum school education level in South Africa [25]. This result is similar to that of other reports in Alfred Nzo, where 58% of respondents were without formal education [26] and OR Tambo had 26% with no schooling at all [27]. It has been reported that a low level of education exacerbates a high unemployment rate [25,28,29], and this may impact negatively on public health initiatives targeted to improve consumers knowledge and practices on consumption of safe pork [30].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Consumer knowledge and practices to pork safety in two Taenia solium cysticercosis endemic districts in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

2020

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Background: Globally, Taenia solium can cause cysticercosis in humans (including neurocysticercosis) and in pigs through ingestion of eggs and taeniasis in humans through ingestion of raw/undercooked pork contaminated with mature cysts. It is now recognised globally as one of the most prevalent food-borne parasitic diseases. The majority of cases have been reported in developing countries where consumption of food produced under unhygienic conditions is prevalent, exacerbated by lack of food safety education. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and practices of consumers towards pork safety in two districts of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, where T. solium cysticercosis is endemic in pigs and humans. Methods: Three-hundred-and-sixty-one (361) participants were conveniently interviewed on consumer knowledge (harmfulness of T. solium cysticercosis, ability to identify cysts, trustworthiness of registered butcheries and legal requirements) and practices (storage of pork and method(s) of cooking pork safely) through a structured questionnaire. Chi-square for association of variables was used to compare differences in the districts. Results: Overall, 73.1% of the study group from both districts agreed that pork forms an important part of their diet. Consumers (54.2%: 189/349) agreed that pork infected with T. solium cysts could be harmful, and 57.3% (188/328) indicated their inability to identify T. solium cysts in pork when slaughtered at home. Although 69.5% (234/352) trusted pork bought from butcheries, only 52.2% (187/358) were aware that butcheries must present a registration certificate in order to operate. This coincides with the fact that very few (< 10%) were aware of the legal requirements in terms of disease control, slaughter and food preparation. Most consumers (88.7%: 268/302) kept pork in the fridge and only 11.3% (34/302) kept it in a freezer (p = 0.02). Although not significantly different between the districts (p = 0.15), consumers in Alfred Nzo (71.4%: 152/213) and OR Tambo (61.2%: 74/12) mostly cooked pork as a stew, followed by braai/barbeque and frying or baking. This was in line with the fact that consumers in Alfred Nzo (79%: 147/186) and OR Tambo (80.8%: 120) preferred well-cooked pork; the main reason for this was the belief that cooking kills germs (43.6%: 121/277) followed by rendering the meat tasty (26.4%: 73/277).

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Consumer knowledge and practices to pork safety in two Taenia solium cysticercosis endemic districts in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

2020

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“…For example, Raphael et al (2009) found that the odds of perceived drought being very likely to continue, were significantly higher in women than in men when considering the concern for self or family. Similarly, some studies found that as a demographic characteristic, gender had a critical influence in decisions on drought and agricultural activities (Bahta et al, 2016;Muyambo et al, 2017). The results confirm that animal production is a male dominated career in the studied area, with very little youth involvement.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Drought Preparedness Status of Farmers in the Nguni Cattle Development Project and the Sire Subsidy Scheme in North West Province, South Africa

Bareki¹

2017

Appl. Ecol. Env. Res.

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Abstract. The objective of this study was to assess the drought preparedness status of the farmers that benefited from the Nguni Cattle Development Project and the Sire Subsidy Scheme in North West Province, South Africa. The data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to research, through a semi-structured questionnaire with five sections that probed into: A) personal information, B) farmer socio-economic resources, C) farm operational resources, D) access to Early Warning Information, and E) constraints to drought preparedness. Collected data were coded, captured and analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS (version 23) into frequency counts, percentages, graphs and tables. The results revealed that, majority of the respondents were African (97.6%); male (74.1%); married (64.3%); between 50 and 64 years of age (43.5%) and (38.8%) had high school education, respectively. Furthermore, most (76%) respondent farmers were not drought prepared with regard to grazing availability; 20% of the farmers were found to have non-dependable sources of water; 60% of the farms did not have any structural units for maintaining fodder banks and 63% did not have enough fodder reserves. Most respondents (84%) had never received drought related early warning information. Respondents cited lack of money (62%) and deficiency of information (58%) as the major constraints to their drought preparedness. The study recommends that the agricultural extensionists' plausible contact (95%) with the farmers should be used to also educate farmers on effective drought mitigation strategies and for dissemination of early warning information.

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“…Equal weights were assigned to indicators to calculate S 0 VI. It has been argued by Cutter et al (2003) and Muyambo (2017) that there is no theoretical basis for assigning different weights to indicate different levels of significance to individual factors' contribution to social vulnerability. The indices were then summed up and divided by the total number of indicators to obtain the SoVI for the five geopolitical zones of Missouri State (see Table 3).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Social Vulnerability to Wildfire in Missouri, United States of America

Akinola¹,

Adegoke²,

Ologunorisa³

2019

JSD

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Wildfire is a major environmental hazard causing property damage and destruction including biodiversity loss in the United States. In order to reduce property loss and destruction arising from wildfire, this study assessed and identified social vulnerability to wildfire in Missouri using the American Community Survey data on social and demographic variables for the state of Missouri and social vulnerability index (S0VI). The study divided Missouri into five geopolitical zones from which ten counties were randomly selected for this study. The selected counties formed the basis on which fourteen social and demographic indicators were identified and assessed using Bogardi, Birkmann and Cadona conceptual framework. The result of the analysis shows that S0VI estimated for the five geopolitical zones of Missouri is moderate with a rating scale of 1.42 – 1.71. Education, income and marital status have a rating scale of 2.0 - 3.0 attributed for the high value of Social Vulnerability to wildfire. Race / ethnicity, language spoken, employment and percentage of house units that are mobile homes had a low S0VI value of 1.0 thereby contributing positively to resilience to wildfire risk. The study observes that government involvement in wildfire risk reduction is quite impressive and should still be intensified. The policy implication of this study is that education and income are key variables that contribute to high wildfire risk in Missouri. The need for government to formulate a policy on environmental education of the populace especially for people of low income and education become imperative. This will go a long way in reducing damage and property loss arising from wildfire.

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Assessing social vulnerability to drought in South Africa: Policy implication for drought risk reduction

Cited by 39 publications

References 12 publications

Consumer knowledge and practices to pork safety in two Taenia solium cysticercosis endemic districts in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Consumer knowledge and practices to pork safety in two Taenia solium cysticercosis endemic districts in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Drought Preparedness Status of Farmers in the Nguni Cattle Development Project and the Sire Subsidy Scheme in North West Province, South Africa

Assessment of Social Vulnerability to Wildfire in Missouri, United States of America

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