RESUMO
Aims: It has long been considered that specific age/gender groups, such as women and children, are predisposed to nutritional vulnerability. Thus, nutritional vulnerability among agricultural households is neglected and understudied. This study aims at an empirical assessment of nutritional vulnerability dynamics among rural households in Nigeria. Study Design: Secondary data used for this study was waves 2 and 3 of the general household survey panel data. The sampling design consisted of two stages of sampling: the selection of enumeration areas based on probability proportionate to the size of the enumeration areas and the systematic random selection of ten households from each enumeration area. There were 3370 households selected in rural areas and 1630 households selected in urban areas. 2090 rural households with the required information for this study were included in the analysis. Methodology: Descriptive statistics, nutritional vulnerability score, logit regression model, Markov model, and multinomial logit regression models were used to analyse nutritional vulnerability transitions among rural households in Nigeria. Results: Nutritionally vulnerable households in rural Nigeria include those with aged heads, little or no formal education, limited assets, and no access to land or credit. Nutritional vulnerability in rural Nigeria is primarily transient, with around two-fifths of households experiencing transient nutritional vulnerability and nearly one-third experiencing chronic nutritional vulnerability. While the age of the household head, tertiary education, and access to credit all had a substantial impact on transient nutritional vulnerability, gender, tertiary education, asset value, and access to credit all had an impact on chronic nutritional vulnerability. Conclusion: Support mechanisms such as initiatives to promote access to healthy food, credit, land, and education are critical. To successfully address the issues affecting the nutrition and health of persons facing vulnerabilities, social welfare programs with interventions based on the characteristics of each vulnerable group and the predisposing factors should be adopted.
RESUMO
The contamination of the environment with heavy metals is one of the challenges that make up Sierra Leone's environmental problem, with urbanization being one of the main causes; due to the lack of proper waste dumpsites and landfills for infrastructural development, rivers, and streams are polluted. The loss of biodiversity, but river and stream pollution have a significant impact on aquatic life. Animals and plants in contaminated water sources "may perish or reproduce improperly". This study assessed the level of concentration of heavy metals namely; chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) in some commonly-consumed vegetables like Manihot esculenta (Cassava) leaves, Ipomoea batatas (Potato) leaves, Amaranthus viridis (African spinach), Corchorus olitorius (Krain krain); Solanum lycopersicum (Tomatoes); Cucumis sativus (Cucumber); Brassica oleracea (Cabbage); Abelmoschus esculentus fruits (Okra); Capsicum annuum (Bell Pepper); and Lactuca sativa (Lettuce) which were all purchased at local market places in Freetown. The vegetable samples were analyzed using an X-ray fluorescence machine (XRF) to determine their heavy metal concentration. The goal was to determine the food safety status of the vegetables by comparing the results to the maximum permissible limit (MPL) for vegetables, as set by WHO/FAO. The levels of Zn, Cr, Fe, Cu, and Pb in all vegetable samples varied from 4.70 – 5.69 %; 3.46 – 4.58 %; 4.00 – 4.52 %; 2.87 – 3.42 %; and 0.5 – 1.2 %, respectively. This result indicates that the metals were present at unsafe levels. According to the result, the maximum concentration values are much higher than the MPL value suggested by WHO/FAO for vegetables, implying that eating vegetables from the source market sites in this study may pose a health risk to humans. Heavy metals in vegetables should be monitored on a regular basis to prevent excessive accumulation of these heavy metals in the human food chain. When it comes to vegetable marketing, certain precautions should be implemented.