ANALYSIS OF FOOD SAFETY AMONG DRIED FISH SELLERS IN AKURE, ONDO STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Unsafe Food Marketing and its Economic Implication in Nigeria Agriculture and the food industry have remained strategic sectors of the economy of many nations. Agriculture plays a vital role in human development, growth and survival of nations. The issues of food production in terms of availability, accessibility, wholesomeness and nutrient quality has been the concern of many developing nations. “Food” is any substance or material eaten to provide nutritional support for the body and usually consists of plant or animal origin that contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins or minerals. Foods are product derived from plants or animals that can be taken into the body to yield energy and nutrients for the maintenance of life and the growth and repair of tissues (Whitney and Rolfes, 2015).
Food is a commodity which contain nutrients and is thus nutritive, susceptible of satisfying appetite, thus palatable and accepted as food in the society being considered thus customary. Safety is defined as setting standards for toxicological and microbiological hazards, and instituting procedures and practices to ensure that the standards are achieved (FAO/WHO, 2011). Food safety therefore describes the handling, preparation and storage of food in ways that prevent food borne illness and it is also the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use. This include a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards (FAO/WHO, 2012).
Food is a necessity and accounts for significant expenditure in households all over the world. It features prominently in both national and international commerce. Food affect our biological life as well as our material interest. The task of keeping our food supply steady and safe is therefore, an important issue concerning all. Food safety is a complex and diversified subject, involving the cooperation of scientists, industrialists, agriculturalists, businessmen, administrators and consumers (FAO/WHO, 2010).
At the heart of all food control activities is the establishment of safety, quality and labeling standards. These should be established on the broadest possible scale, in the recognition that food production and marketing is truly a global industry. A food is said to have quality if it provides sensory characteristics such as the taste, aroma, palatability and appearance. Food quality is the multi-component measure of the extent to which the units of a food product which a seller is willing and able to offer at a price, consistently meet the requirements and expectations of consumers willing and able to buy the food product at that price. Quality of a given product may be looked at as its conformity to a given level of excellence which represent particular standards or specifications with minimum cost to the producer and is believed to be satisfactory with the consumer in general.
Contamination of food and feeds makes them both to be unsafe for consumption and is a very serious issue everywhere. In many developing countries where the need to eat may outweigh concerns about food safety, it is a particularly serious problem with increase globalization. The problem with food is that although man harvests or hunts food for his own personal consumption, there are many other living organisms that try to use this food for their own use. This includes organism that range from large animals through small forms of life such as insects, down to microscopic forms of life such as bacteria. Food contamination creates an enormous social and economic burden on communities and their health systems.
Value chain seems to be the keyword in recent agricultural debate often in conjunction with rural economic development and agric-business production (Entwicklung and Raum, 5/2005). According to Hoeffler, (2008) Value chain (V.C) can be described as a sequence of productive process from the provision of specific inputs for a particular product to primary production, transportation, processing, marketing and trading to the final consumer. It can also be seen as a sequence of activities that goods passes through, with value being added in each stage and actors are connected along these chains of producing, transforming, processing and bringing these goods and services to the end consumers (Fries et al, 2004). In agricultural production, value chain (V.C) is a very important concept or tool if productivity is to be maximized (Webber and Labaste, 2010) and these apply for both crop and livestock production in agriculture it also treats enterprises not as a singular entity, but as part of an integrated chain of economic functions and linkages across geographical boundaries. The concept of value chain through it analysis (value chain analysis V.C.A) also emphasizes on diverse interrelationship among market opportunities, constraints and directives at various level of the supply chain and at different levels of influence from which specific value addition takes place.
Contemporary events around the world have shown increasing concerns for the 75 percent or more people inhabiting the rural areas, this is justified by the high correlation that exists between rural living and poverty with this situation particularly aggravated in developing countries (World Bank, 1994). Nigeria as an example, is a country which agriculture is usually in the hands of many rural dwellers, and these concepts of value chain is lagging behind, this was credited in the works of (Ehinomen and Oladipo, 2012), which the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in a survey carried out as part of its membership operational audit in January 2010, it recorded that of the 2780 registered members, a total of 839 (30.2%) manufacturing firms closed their factories in 2009, this was due to their inability to cope with the challenges posted by the harsh operating environment in Nigeria.
According to Eurostat, (2012) it was stated in value terms, that the EU-27’s crop output grew by 9.1 percent in 2011 to EUR 203,330 million and animal output increased by 9.9 percent to EUR 154,057 million and recently there has been a remarkable interest in livestock production. The intake of protein in Nigeria stands at 3.5g per caput per day (Ironkwe and Amefule, 2008) and this is far less than the 35g per caput per day recommended by the World Health Organization (W.H.O), this shortage of animal protein consumption is partly due to the high cost of conventional meat sources like cattle, goat, sheep (Tewe, 1999), it is therefore necessary to search for a cheaper alternative source of meat to meet the ever increasing demand for animal protein.
Pig (Sus scrofa), for instance is an animal which most livestock farmers are interested in producing in many part of the Nigeria Livestock industry, pigs have been recommended as a good alternative source of cheap, high quality animal protein that suits escalating human population like Nigeria, this makes the pig industry in Nigeria a very important arm of the livestock sub-sector in the overall agricultural sector in the economy. The interest in porcine production is based on the fact that pigs have relatively low cost of production and their growth rate is fast (Osaro, 1995), they also have short generation interval, high production potential, high prolificacy and high carcass yield, they adapt easily to environmental condition (ILCA, 1992), they are good converter of food waste to valuable products, their annual growth rate (3.8%) is higher than that of the human population (2.30-2.80%) (Ironkwe and Amefule, 2008), they also require relatively small space requirement (Babatunde and Fetuga 1990). They also elaborated that pigs are also being used for many purpose which include meat production, Cooking fat and in the production of bristle e.t.c. Pig production in Nigeria can be classified into 3 major categories based on the system of production these categories include extensive, semi-intensive and intensive system of production (Ikani and Dafwang). In the extensive system of pig production, the pigs are reared in the backyard of the farmers were they are allowed to fend for themselves, feeding on garbage and kitchen wastes. While in the semi-intensive system the farmers are interested in making economic gains and then more input are applied to add value to the products. Under this system the pigs are kept in pens and are fed both on kitchen wastes and concentrates, drugs and other things necessary for the development of the pigs are also taken into consideration. The intensive system which is not very common in Nigeria requires strict monitoring of every parameters in the production process, it is highly capital intensive, the farmers also relies fully on artificial feed (concentrate)given in their right proportion, vaccines, drugs, and every other things needed without depending on nature for any of these. This system is also called the CLOSED system of production (Devandra and Fuller, 1989).
In Nigeria today, the most common of this system production is the semi-intensive system, because of the medium capital outlay needed to start the venture (Ajala and Osuhor,2004,). It has been observed that some farmers producing pigs at the semi-intensive level, dispose (sell) their pigs when they are young (as piglet) to serve as new stocks in other farms, replace their stock or to start-up a new farm, most farmers also sell live pigs and only few sell slaughtered pig (pork meat) (ILRI 10,2011). But for profit to be maximized in pig production in Nigeria today there is still the urgent need for more value addition in pig production (Webber and Labaste, 2010). These value can be added to the final product in the production sequence as follow:- young piglets been sold or reared to maturity, slaughtered, sorted, then processed into various product (like bacon, sausages e.t.c were necessary), packaged, preserved to be sold later for future use (Bettina et al, 2006).The value of the final products that passes through this sequence will always be more than the initial value of the product (pig) itself, these will of course produce greater gain in the enterprise and greater employment of labour (Kula et al 2006).We can see from here that this will have an overall effect in the Nigeria economy, those who do not like the pig need to be educated on the advantages of pig production for local and international market in order to enhance its contribution to the Nigeria economy (Seye, 2012).
Information and communication are essential ingredients needed for effective transfer of technologies that are designed to boost agricultural production. For farmers to benefit from such technologies they must first have access to them and learn how to effectively utilize them in their farming systems and practices (Ariyo et al, 2013).This should be the function of agricultural extension agencies all over the world. These extension agencies make use of different approaches, means and media in transferring improved agricultural technologies to the end users (farmers). Mass media methods in agricultural information dissemination generally, are useful in reaching a wide audience at a very fast rate. They are useful sources of agricultural information to farmers and as well constitute methods of notifying farmers of new developments and emergencies. They could equally be important in stimulating farmers’ interest in new ideas and practices (Ani et. al. 1997). Common sources of agricultural information sources that have been used are the extension services, radio, television, magazines, newspapers and face-to-face communication. According to Statrasts, (2004) this information sources is seen as an institution or individuals that create or bring about message and the characteristics of a good information source are relevance, timelessness, accuracy, cost effectiveness reliability, usability exhaustiveness and aggregation level. Lately research institutions have embraced the modern sources of information such as Internet especially online database, journals and articles that have made information more readily accessible, accurate and timely. These modern sources have been used within research institutions and extension service units but their effectiveness in availing information to farmers have been criticized. It is thought that the modern sources of information have social, education, economic, cultural and technical constraints which limit their effectiveness in disseminating agricultural information to farmers (Bashir, 2008). It is important to disseminate agricultural information to ensure farmers have adequate knowledge and skills to address their needs and sustain production. Research institutions have a responsibility of ensuring that the information they disseminate is packaged in a way that makes it easy for the end-users to understand and to use appropriate dissemination channels that would make the information accessible to the end-users (Ghobrial and Musa, 2006).
Hence, the information supply from extension, research, education and others sources has become managed by agricultural organizations, and especially disseminated to farmers so that they can make better decisions to take advantage of market opportunities and to manage continuous changes in their production systems (Demiryurek,2010). This value chain addition sequence in pig production is either lagging behind in pig production in Nigeria or it is not put into practice maximally (UNIDO, CBN, 2010), this could be as a result of lack of proper orientation of these information sources on value chain addition in pig production.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Dried fish easily absorbs moisture during handling and storage especially when the relative humidity is high. This occurs when the dried fish absorbs moisture from its immediate environment, thereby resulting in increased water activity which causes mould growth and spoilage. There is the incidence of insect and rodent attacks on dried fish during handling which causes further contamination by microorganism. This necessitates the application of insecticides to preserve dried fish during marketing. Application of insecticide or pesticide has safety implications on the side of consumers because of possible food poisoning arising from residual action of insecticides. The economic impact of contaminated foods is devastating. Developing countries with limited resources lose foreign exchange as a result of rejected food exports to developed countries (FAO/WHO 2012). The economy of a nation can suffer greatly from loss of confidence from trading partners. Furthermore, victims of food borne illnesses suffer from physical and emotional distress and the cost of treatment and loss of wages are a burden to the nation. Effective food safety control system in developing countries can make a major contribution by reducing food losses through insect attack and contamination.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The study will address the following research questions:
- What are the factors militating against food safety among dried fish sellers in the study area?
- What is the cost implication of food safety among dried fish marketers?
iii. What are the possible ways of improving safety practices of dried fish?
- What are the causes of dried fish poisoning in the study area?
- Is dried fish marketing profitable?
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective is to carry out analysis of food safety among dried fish sellers in Akure, Ondo State. The specific objectives are to:
- examine the socioeconomic characteristics of dried fish sellers.
- identify the safety practices of dried fish sellers.
iii. estimate the cost of food safety among dried fish marketers.
- identify the problems of dried fish marketing among the sellers.
1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Agriculture and food security provide the springboard for health via adequacy as in quantity available with emphasis on quality depicted by nutrition and food safety. Unsafe food causes many acute and life-long diseases, ranging from diarrhea diseases to various forms of cancer. WHO estimates that food borne and water borne diarrhea diseases taken together kill about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9 million of them children most of whom are in developing countries. In order to enhance food safety, the amount of resources used and the efficiency of production are contingent upon use of appropriate technologies, infrastructure, storage, processing, marketing and transportation. At the end of this research, it is believed that the result of this research will not only provide useful information for participating and intending sellers and consumers of dried fish but will also provide information for future researchers, extension agents and policy makers in finding long lasting solutions to the various problems of food safety among the dried fish sellers.
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