Towards Food Safety: Hand Washing and Environmental Hygiene Practices of Farming Households in North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

In recent times, the potential of good health status of farmers in improving the agricultural productivity had been a concern hence, this study examined the hand washing and environmental hygiene practices for food safety among farming households in North-Central Nigeria. Five-stage random sampling technique was employed to select 256 farming households for the study. Interview schedule was used to elicit data from the respondents. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, charts, mean score and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The result of the study shows that respondents mean age was 37years. The average number of respondents' visits to health service workers was 3 times/per annum. Majority (73.8%) of the respondents are aware of the need to always wash hands after using the toilet. There is low knowledge on the use soap/ash to wash hand before eating (36.3%), preparing food/cooking (20.3%), changing baby's wear (24.2%), after defecating (19.1%) and before feeding children (18.40%). Majority of the respondents got their water for household purposes from dug well (57%) and bore holes (52%). Majority (84%) treat their water by allowing it to stand and settle before use. The use of bush (41.8%) and pit latrine (41.4%) are the major means of defecation. Household wastes were mostly dump in a nearby bush (mean=2.51). Pearson product moment correlation analysis shows that age (r=0.538, p< 0.05), level of education (r=0.398, p