Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Malawian Farmers on Pre- and Post-Harvest Crop Management to Mitigate Aflatoxin Contamination in Groundnut, Maize and Sorghum—Implication for Behavioral Change

Abstract

A knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) study was conducted in three districts of Malawi to test whether the training had resulted in increased knowledge and adoption of recommended pre- and post-harvest crop management practices, and their contribution to reducing aflatoxin contamination in groundnut, maize and sorghum. The study was conducted with 900 farmers at the baseline and 624 farmers at the end-line, while 726 and 696 harvested crop samples were collected for aflatoxin testing at the baseline and end-line, respectively. Results show that the knowledge and practice of pre- and post-harvest crop management for mitigating aflatoxin were inadequate among the farmers at the baseline but somewhat improved after the training as shown at the end-line. As a result, despite unfavorable weather, the mean aflatoxin contamination level in their grain samples decreased from 83.6 to 55.8 ppb (p < 0.001). However, it was also noted that increased knowledge did not significantly change farmers’ attitude toward not consuming grade-outs because of economic incentive incompatibility, leaving potential for improving the practices further. This existing gap in the adoption of aflatoxin mitigation practices calls for approaches that take into account farmers’ needs and incentives to attain sustainable behavioral change.

Determinants of knowledge about aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination in sorghum and postharvest practices among caregivers of children aged 6–59 months in Kerio Valley, Kenya

“…This practice was notable in Emsoo ward, and one of the caregivers said "Last year, all of my neighbour's produce got spoilt but she refused to dispose off; they consumed all of it." Lack of knowledge on the health effects associated with mycotoxins (Mboya & Kolanisi, 2014 ) and food shortage are among the contributing factors for the use of spoilt grains for human consumption and as animals feed (Anitha et al., 2019 ; Matumba et al., 2016 ). The study participants showed a general lack of awareness on the health effects associated with mycotoxins on humans.…”

Worldwide aflatoxin contamination of agricultural products and foods: From occurrence to control

“…A more recent study by Anitha et al. (2019) observed that despite adverse weather conditions mean aflatoxin levels in grains were reduced from 83.6 to 55.8 ppb as a result of training farmers on aflatoxin‐related issues.…”

Effect of REDD+ projects on local livelihood assets in Keo Seima and Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia

“…As for inferential analysis, the Wilcoxon signed rank test (Seetha et al, 2019), a nonparametric alternative to the paired t test, is employed to examine the change in livelihood indicators over time. Furthermore, harnessing the recall data, the panel regression method (Tsusaka and Otsuka, 2013) is adopted to identify the change in livelihood indicators while determining and controlling for factors affecting their levels.…”