Assessment of factors influencing adoption of postharvest loss reduction practices along the mango value chain in Embu, Machakos, and Nairobi counties, Kenya.

Use of loss reduction practices are critical to ensuring losses are reduced significantly along the value chain. This necessitates for the need to assess the factors that influence adoption of the loss reductio practices to have better targeting and development. Therefore, the current study assessed the factors that influence adoption, and multistage sampling technique was employed. The counties and the sub-counties were purposively selected, and the mapping began from Nairobi which is the main market for mangoes. Wholesalers, and retailers were interviewed making use of snowballing, while farmers were randomly selected. A total of 70 farmers were selected, 74 wholesalers, and 98 retailers were sampled. From the study, at the farm level results revealed that about 38.7 % of the farmer respondents prefer use of stick and bag. On the other hand, about 37.1 % of farmers in Machakos had preference of hand picking as the main method of harvesting. Wholesaler preferred the use of cartons in Nairobi, while those in Embu and Machakos had higher preference of use of shades. Result from the empirical model showed that credit was a critical factor to use of the practices at the farm with a 40 % influence on use of multiple practices. Experiencing higher losses influenced adoption of the practices by 4.3 %, and would influence use of multiple practices by 19.2 %. Organized selling was the critical factor for wholesalers and influenced adoption by 43.4 %. Retailers in Embu and Machakos on the other hand, were 19.9 % less likely to take up the practices. The results further showed that higher PHL influence retailer to take up loss reduction practices by 30.2 %, and those that were more experience were 20 % more likely to take up the practices. From the result it was thus concluded that cost effectiveness, ability to reduce losses, and increase of incomes were some of the things actors were interested with before they could take up any loss reduction practice. Through the study it was evident that high PHL less to higher use of the practices, and also positively influence the intensity of use of the practices. It was thus recommended that there is need for upgrading the current low-cost technologies to make them more user friendly so that they are not time-wasting during harvest, and for the traders they are able to carry optimal quantities that lead to profit maximization.

Housing as a Social Determinant of Health: Evidence from Singapore, the UK, and Kenya: the 3-D Commission.

Housing is a paradigmatic example of a social determinant of health, as it influences and is influenced by structural determinants, such as social, macroeconomic, and public policies, politics, education, income, and ethnicity/race, all intersecting to shaping the health and well-being of populations. It can therefore be argued that housing policy is critically linked to health policy. However, the extent to which this linkage is understood and addressed in public policies is limited and highly diverse across and within countries. This analysis seeks to describe the linkages between housing policies and health and well-being using examples from three countries at different levels of the wealth spectrum: Singapore, the UK, and Kenya.We conducted a comparative policy analysis across three country contexts (Singapore, the UK, and Kenya) to document the extent to which housing policies address health and well-being, highlighting commonalities and differences among them. To guide our analysis, we used the United Nations (UN) definition of adequate housing as it offers a broad framework to analyze the impact of housing on health and well-being.The anatomy of housing policies has a strong correlation to the provision of adequate housing across Singapore, the UK, and Kenya, especially for vulnerable groups. The paper demonstrates that contextual factors including population composition (i.e., aging versus youthful), political ideologies, legal frameworks (i.e., welfare versus market-based provision of housing), and presence (or absence) of adequate, quality, timely, reliable, robust data systems for decision-making, which are taken up by stakeholders/state, have strong implications of the type of housing policies developed and implemented, in turn directly and indirectly impacting the overall health and well-being of populations.This analysis demonstrates the value of viewing housing policies as public health policies that could significantly impact the health and well-being of populations, especially vulnerable groups. Moreover, the findings highlight the importance of the Health in All Policies approach to facilitate integrated policy responses to address social determinants of health such as housing. This is more critical than ever, given the context of the global pandemic that has led to worsening overall health and well-being.

Data, Social Determinants, and Better Decision-making for Health: the 3-D Commission.

More than a decade after the World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), it is becoming widely accepted that social and economic factors, including but not limited to education, energy, income, race, ethnicity, and housing, are important drivers of health in populations. Despite this understanding, in most contexts, social determinants are not central to local, national, or global decision-making. Greater clarity in conceptualizing social determinants, and more specificity in measuring them, can move us forward towards better incorporating social determinants in decision-making for health. In this paper, first, we summarize the evolution of the social framing of health. Second, we describe how the social determinants are conceptualized and contextualized differently at the global, national, and local levels. With this, we seek to demonstrate the importance of analyzing and understanding SDoH relative to the contexts in which they are experienced. Third, we problematize the gap in data across contexts on different dimensions of social determinants and describe data that could be curated to better understand the influence of social determinants at the local and national levels. Fourth, we describe the necessity of using data to understand social determinants and inform decision-making to improve health. Our overall goal is to provide a path for our collective understanding of the foundational causes of health, facilitated by advances in data access and quality, and realized through improved decision-making.

Effect of selected pretreatments prior to drying on physical quality attributes of dried mango chips.

This study investigated the effect of pretreatments namely citric acid, lemon juice and blanching on the physical attributes of dried chips from two popular commercial mango varieties grown in Kenya viz 'Apple' and 'Ngowe'. The pretreated mango chips were either subjected to a convective dryer or solar drying. Moisture content, extent of dryness, rehydration characteristics, water activity and color retention were determined to establish the effect of the pretreatments before drying on physical quality attributes of dried mango chips. Moisture content, water activity and color were determined using standard procedures. Equilibrium relative humidity was estimated using Drycard™. Results obtained indicated that optimal drying was achieved with dryer temperatures of 50 °C and 65 °C for 10 and 7 h respectively that reduced moisture content to ~ 11% and water activity to below 0.65 (sufficient for inhibited spoilage). The best color parameters and rehydration characteristics were observed with 1% citric acid and 0.5 v/v lemon acid pretreated samples. Blanched as well as control (untreated) samples showed relatively poor color retention in relation to flesh mango chips and had the least rehydration ratio (1.65 ± 0.01) and coefficient of rehydration (0.33 ± 0.1). As pretreatments before drying affect physical parameters of dried mango chips, the best choice of pretreatments should be made to produce high quality end products. Citric acid and lemon juice pretreatments before drying at 50 °C and 65 °C had the optimal outcome and produced the best physical quality parameters.

Influence of Coating Application Methods on the Postharvest Quality of Cassava.

Various modes of edible coating application vary in their coat dispersion and film formation, hence the need to determine the most effective mode of application for cassava. Edible surface coatings have been found to be effective in preserving the quality of various food products. However, there are variations in effectiveness among the different coating solutions, hence the need for optimization of the concentrations of the gums used. This study aimed at determining the most efficient coating application method on the cassava postharvest quality. Physiologically mature cassava (variety KME 1) was harvested and divided into seven portions. The various portions were coated using 1.5% xanthan gum, 1.5% xanthan/guar gum, and 2% xanthan/guar gum by both dipping and spraying method. There was no significant difference on the colour, total cyanide, ethylene production, and total phenolic content between the two application methods. The 2% xanthan/guar gum coating showed a significant difference on the dry matter content while the 1.5% xanthan gum coating had a significant difference on the respiration rate and weight loss. The 1.5 xanthan treated roots had a final dry matter content of 72.5% for the sprayed samples and 75.98% for the dipped sample while the 2% xanthan/guar gum treated roots had a final dry matter content of 64.6% and 74.1% for the dipped and sprayed root samples, respectively. The 1.5% xanthan and 2% xanthan/guar gum treated roots showed no significant difference in their action on dry matter content. The 1.5% xanthan/guar dipped and sprayed samples differed significantly on their effect on flesh firmness with final values of 35.4N and 46.1N, respectively, at 20 days after harvest. This study suggested that based on the coating solution and the parameters being observed, there generally was no varying effect of dipping and spraying methods of coating application. The choice of the efficient mode of application to use will depend on other factors such as the easiness of application.

Effect of drying methods on the retention of bioactive compounds in African eggplant.

African eggplants (Solanum aethiopicum L.) are a rich source of bioactive compounds and functional constituents that are beneficial to human health. However, the short shelf life of these vegetables can be a major cause of postharvest losses especially during peak harvesting season. Drying is one of the most convenient technologies for the production of shelf stable food products. However, drying can lead to considerable loss of the available bioactive compounds due to thermal degradation depending on the drying method and temperature conditions. This study investigated the effect of four drying methods (solar, oven, vacuum, and freeze) on the retention of total phenolics, beta-carotene, antioxidant capacity, and lycopene in five African eggplant (S. aethiopicum) accessions (sangawili, manyire green, S00047A, AB2, and aubergine blanche). Samples were dried up to ~10% moisture content. The fresh and dried samples were analyzed for total phenolic content, antioxidant capacity, beta-carotene content, and the lycopene content. In the fresh state, beta-carotene, total phenolic content, and free radical scavenging activity ranged between 14.75 ± 0.50 and 29.50 ± 0.77 mg/100 g db, 751.21 ± 1.73 and 1,363.95 ± 2.56 mg/100 g GAE db, and 99.58 and 325.61 mg/ml db IC 50 value, respectively. The accession S00047 showed highest total phenolic content and lowest IC 50 value in the fresh samples. The results also showed that total phenolic content, antioxidant capacity, and beta-carotene contents were significantly (p < .05) affected by drying method and drying temperature with freeze-drying presenting the highest retention. Overall, 36.26%s-95.05% (total phenolics) and 31.44%-99.27% (beta-carotene) were retained during freeze-drying. Lycopene was only detected in the dried samples of the accession manyire green but absent in all the fresh samples of all the accessions. This study demonstrates that freeze-drying was the most effective in retaining the highest bioactive compounds in African eggplants.

Metabolomic analyses to evaluate the effect of drought stress on selected African Eggplant accessions.

BACKGROUND: Drought stress is one of the main abiotic stresses that affect crops. It leads to biochemical changes that can have adverse effects on plant growth, development and productivity. African eggplants are important vegetable and fruit crops reported to adapt and thrive well under drought stress. The diversified metabolites arising due to stress have not been well defined. A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric metabolomic approach was applied to characterize the effect of drought stress on metabolites at different stages of growth. Nineteen accessions were selected for analysis and drought was imposed by withholding water until soil moisture reached 60% field capacity. Fresh leaf tissues were sampled before stress, 2 and 4 weeks after stress and metabolite profiling done. RESULTS: Significant changes in metabolite content were observed, and potentially important metabolites with respect to stress responses were characterized. Proline, glutamate, sucrose, fructose and tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolites were shown to be positively correlated with stress. Principal component analysis showed a clear discrimination between the different accessions, growth stages and stress/control conditions. CONCLUSION: The results illustrate that drought stress has a significant impact on the concentrations of some metabolites, such as amino acids, sugars and organic acids, which may contribute to drought stress effects and tolerance. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Carotenoid profiling of the leaves of selected African eggplant accessions subjected to drought stress.

African eggplants (Solanum aethiopicum and S. macrocarpon) are among the most economically important and valuable vegetable and fruit crops. They are a major source of biologically active nutritional substances and metabolites which are essential for plant growth, development, stress adaptation and defense. Among these metabolites are the carotenoids which act as accessory pigments for photosynthesis and precursor to plant hormones. Though African eggplants are known to be resistant to various abiotic stresses, the effect of these stresses on secondary metabolites has not been well defined. The objective of this study was to establish the effect of drought stress on carotenoid profiles of nineteen African eggplant accessions selected based on leaf and fruit morphological traits. Stress was achieved by limiting irrigation and maintaining the wilting state of the crops. Fresh leaves were sampled at different maturity stages; before stress, 2 weeks and 4 weeks after stress for carotenoid analysis. The fresh harvested leaf tissues were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and ground. Analysis was carried out using a Dionex HPLC machine coupled to Photo Array Detector and Chromeleon software package (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA). Major carotenoids viz;. Xanthophylls (neoxanthin, violaxanthin, zeaxanthin and lutein) and carotenes (ß-carotene and α-carotene), phytofluene, lycopene, phytoene as well as chlorophylls (chlorophyll-b and Chlorophyll-a) were targeted. The carotenoids increased with maturity stage of the crop. Although the stressed crops reported significantly decreased amount of carotenes, chlorophylls, neoxanthin and violaxanthin, the concentration of zeaxanthin increased with stress whereas lutein had no significant change. Chlorophyll-a was significantly high in all the control accessions. Two accessions reported significantly higher contents of carotenoids as compared to the other accessions. The results of this study indicate that water stress has significant impact on the concentration of some carotenoids and photosynthetic pigments. This will definitely add value to the study of stress tolerance in crops.