School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bioengineering (SFTNB)

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    Acceptability and microbiological safety of mint-flavored dairy products.
    (Makerere University, 2023-04-12) Muwaza, David
    Milk contains a number of essential nutrients that contribute toward a health. A number of milk products exist but most are flavored using the usual food flavorants such as strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. Mint has been applied in a number of foods but with limited application in milk products. This study evaluated a commercial mint emulsion as a flavourant in different dairy products. The microbiological quality of these dairy products was determined using conventional agar plating techniques. Their consumer acceptability was also evaluated using a 5 point hedonic scale. Three mint-flavored dairy products; pasteurized milk, yogurt and ice cream were developed. They met the East African standard for microbiological safety and were all acceptable to the consumers.
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    Acidification of fig wine
    (Makerere University, 2024-12-11) Ayebazibwe, Isaac
    The acidification of fig wine refers to the process of adjusting the acidity levels in the wine to improve its quality, flavor, and stability. In this study the acidification of fig wine was done by, addition of different acids which include; tartaric, acetic and citric acid and the main objective was to determine the required acid adjustment fractions for fig wine to meet quality standards. Fig wine was produced by fermentation process using saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. The initial physiochemical properties of fig wine were determined which include, alcohol content, total sugars, titratable acidity, pH and total soluble solids. In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to determine the optimum combination of the added acids for acidification of fig wine. The responses which include pH and sensory acceptance values of the fig wine were obtained and analyzed. The analyses show that varying acid combinations have a pH of 3.08 to 3.46 and sensory acceptance values of 5.2 to 6.7 at constant temperature and time during the optimization process. From the analysis of variance, the R2 of the response variables is more than 0.77 that indicates that a high proportion of variability was explained the model. The best acid combination for acidification of fig wine was selected by the response surface methodology because it had the highest sensory acceptance value and the required pH within the UNBS standards which is tartaric acid (9.08g/L), citric acid (10g/L) and acetic acid (2g/L) and hence the fig wine was acidified and improved to the required standards.  
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    Adherence and knowledge on feeding guidelines among HIV-positive mothers with infants aged 0-6 months in Iganga hospital
    (Makerere University, 2021) Lutti, Ntende
    Background: Globally, 14.8 million children were HIV exposed in 2018, 50% of whom were living in sub-Saharan African countries (Slogrove et al., 2020). HIV-Exposed children have higher morbidity and mortality rates than their counterparts who are HIV non-exposed. The most affected are infants aged 0-6 months. However, WHO and MOH have formulated IYCF recommendations within the context of HIV to address this problem but the challenge of adherence still remains. Thus, the mothers’ failure to adhere to these recommendations is attributed to either lack of awareness and understanding of the importance of IYCF guidelines in trying to combat the high morbidity and mortality rates among infants aged 0-6 months. Objective: The purpose of the study, was to assess for adherence and knowledge about IYCFGs within the context of HIV among HIV-positive mothers with infants aged 0-6 months in Iganga general hospital. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 48 HIV-positive mothers with infants aged 0-6 months attending Iganga hospital. A simple random sampling was used in the selection of mothers. A semi-structured questionnaire was used in the collection of data from the respondents. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16. Results: The level of adherence was (12.5%) whereas non-adherence was (87.5%) to IYCFGs among HIV-positive mothers. The reasons for non-adherence were; not having enough breastmilk (30.7%), HIV condition changed (29.17%), fear of stigma (4.17%), busy working schedule (8.33%), and fear of partner/relatives (4.17%). In addition, majority of the mothers (66.3%) initiated breastfeeding within one hour after birth while as (33.7%) did not. Reasons for not initiating breastfeeding early were; being HIV positive (22.9%), delivery by caesarean section (6.2%) and baby in incubator (4.2%). As regards to knowledge, (93.8%) of the mothers did not know the importance of early initiation of breast feeding, only (4.2%) new that ERF can only be used if AFASS whereas only (64.6%) knew that mixed feeding increases the risk of HIV MTCT. Conclusion: There was low knowledge on IYCFGs among HIV-positive mothers which led to the low level of adherence.
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    Adherence to DASH diet by patients attending hypertension clinic at Kiruddu General Hospital
    (Makerere University, 2024) Basemera, Sauda
    This study explores the level of adherence to the DASH diet among hypertensive patients attending hypertension clinic at Kiruddu hospital. The study was conducted at the Kiruddu hypertensive outpatient clinic, involving adults over 18 with hypertension. Participants were recruited purposively, excluding first-time visitors, undiagnosed hypertension patients, inpatients, language barriers, or non-consenting individuals. Data collection involved gathering socio-demographic information, DASH diet knowledge, and physical measurements of weight, height, and blood pressure. The majority of respondents were female (96.1%), aged 31-60 (61%), married (39.9%), with a post-graduate or graduate education (25.3%), and employed in informal occupations (57.2%), earning between 500,001 – 1,000,000 Ushs monthly (30.9%). Most respondents did not have other medical conditions (71.0%), but among those who did, diabetes was the most common (58.3%). A significant portion was HIV negative (76.4%), and of the HIV-positive respondents (21.5%), many were not on antiretroviral therapy (53.2%). Knowledge of the DASH diet was present in 50.6% of respondents, though 63.1% did not believe it could lower blood pressure. Adherence to the diet was low, with 78.1% scoring below 50. The main barriers were the perceived high cost of the diet, lack of knowledge, and limited availability of recommended foods. Key predictors of adherence included family income, with higher income significantly associated with better adherence (p<0.05), while education level and knowledge of the diet did not significantly influence adherence (p>0.05). The study suggests that improving adherence requires making DASH-compliant foods more affordable, enhancing educational initiatives, establishing community support programs, and providing personalized diet plans. Addressing these areas can improve dietary adherence and health outcomes in hypertensive patients.
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    Adherence to dietary recommendations among hypertensive patients aged 45 to 60 years at Jinja regional referral hospital
    (Makerere University, 2022-11-02) Mukooli, Isa Wambala
    Hypertension (HTN) is widely acknowledged as the most common cardiovascularaffecting over 31.1% of the adults aged 20 years and older across the globe, and 26.4% of adults aged 18-64 years in Uganda. Diet is one of the most important modifiable risk factors in the development of hypertension that also accounts for approximately 3.2 million deaths annually across the globe. However, much dietary recommendations has been well demonstrated as an effective non-pharmacological intervention to reduce high blood pressure, motivating the general public to follow these dietary recommendations in it is challenging and even harder among the hypertensive. Data regarding patients’ diets is essential as a basis in developing interventions to increase their adherence to beneficial diets. Such data, however, isscanty in Uganda and thus the current study was an attempt to address the data gap. The main objective of this study was to assess the adherence of hypertensive patients aged 45 to 60 years to dietary recommendations at Jinja regional referral hospital A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on a sample of 60 hypertensivepatients (aged 45-60 years) attending care at the hypertensive outpatient clinic of Jinja hospital. Participants’ data were obtained using a well-designed questionnaire and dietary practice and food consumption patterns were assessed using 24hour dietary recall and an FFQ. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS 22. Majority (98.7%) of the participants had their meals from home, 65% never drunk alcohol, 83.3% never smoked while 53.3% did something to reduce on their sat consumption. and 36.6% had a normal BMI whereas 11.7% and 48.3% were overweight and obese respectively. The mean BMI of the respondents was 29.7%, mean systolic BP 149.9mmHg while diastolic BP was 84.9mmHg. The most reported food group consumed was fats and oils while fruits and vegetables were 83.3% consumed daily by the respondent.Collectively, the findings of this study highlight high adherence to dietary recommendations among hypertensive patients especially 45-60years. However, high levels of discrepancies in dietary knowledge were identified that warrant the need to establish approaches and interventions so as to reduce them and also raise the low levels of dietary knowledge so as to increase the adherence to dietary recommendations
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    Adoptive design and construction of a of a manual paddy rice transplanter.
    (Makerere University, 2018-08-09) Komakech, George Bush
    Rice is a crop of growing importance in Uganda with about 75,000 Ha under rice cultivation. In Uganda, rice production has increased rapidly in the past 10 years while the yield has been stagnant. This can partly be attributed to hand methods of seedling transplanting that result in low seedling placement, spacing inefficiencies and drudgery for the farmer which limits the size of field that can be planted. The farmers cannot however turn to imported transplanters due to high import cost prices. To that effect therefore, a manual lowland rice transplanter was designed, fabricated and tested. The working mechanism of the rice transplanter is that seedlings are kept on the tray and allowed to flow down under gravity while 2 planting arms attached to a shaft pick up the seedlings off the seed tray and place them in the ground at the desired spacing, depth and angle of place. The motion of the shaft is given by the ground wheel using chain and sprocket arrangement. The seedlings are planted into the land by a simple four bar mechanism. The planter shall reduce the time taken to transplant seedlings compared to hand transplanting thus allowing more time for harvest. It will as well improve inter-row and intra-row spacing of rice plants to allow for more room to grow, allow plants to get more sunshine and air and produce more tillers unlike when planted randomly. According to the tests done, the transplanter places seedlings at 30cm by 25cm planting distances at a rate of 4 seedlings per second, hence a planting capacity of 0.75 acres per hour. The transplanter was fabricated at Tree shed Engineering Limited. This report also includes a clear methodology indicating the steps taken to design the transplanter and finally the test protocol for performance and efficiency. In conclusion the designed transplanter will be able to reduce drudgery, improve timeliness and improve row spacing of rice plants
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    Alcohol and dietary patterns among pregnant women in Lunyiri sub county, Pader District
    (Makerere University, 2022-10) Awidi, Mary Menya
    Alcohol is the most common teratogen. Consumption during pregnancy is associated with a range of adverse outcomes for the developing infant and the mother. This study was conducted in Pader district particularly in Parwech Lukee village in Lunyiri Sub County to determine the association of alcohol consumption during pregnancy with dietary patterns and risks of negative of pregnancy outcome. This study was a cross- sectional survey of 50 women of reproductive age which was designed to obtain information on risks of still birth, low birth weight, miscarriage and to assess pregnancy-related food practices such as food cravings and consumption. The results of the study indicate that the risks of negative pregnancy outcome were prevalent with 12% at risk of miscarriage while 10% at risk of stillbirth and low birth weight. Majority of the women (28%) craved for mangoes meanwhile 20% had stable food intake behaviour. The study also showed that intake of fatty foods was at 10% among regular alcohol drinkers mean while intake of fruits and vegetables were high 22% and 64% among non-drinkers. It is recommended that government should sale up awareness creation on the effects of alcohol consumption among pregnant women in order to respond and prevent its associated effects on maternal health and infant development.
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    Anaemia status in children aged 6-59 months attending Hoima Regional Referral Hospital
    (Makerere University, 2022-03) Muganyizi, Wilson
    Background: Anaemia is one of the major causes of death among children under five years in Africa, with a prevalence of 64.6% among pre-school children. This study was conducted in Hoima Regional Referral Hospital in mid-western Uganda to determine the prevalence and risk factors associated with anaemia among children aged 6 to 59 months. Methods: A total of 100 children aged between 6 to 59 months were enrolled. Venous blood samples were collected by finger or heel prick to estimate the haemoglobin level using a haemocue analyser. Anthropometric data including age, weight and height was collected for each child. A structured questionnaire was administered to the mother or an adult caregiver to collect household data. Ethical approval was sought and granted by the hospital director. Anaemia cut-off points were defined according to World Health Organization (WHO) standards for children aged 6–59 months. Data was analyzed using GEN STAT computer package. All correlations were run to assess how all the variables relate over time. Descriptive summary statistics such as frequencies, means, medians and standard deviations were used to describe the characteristics of the study population. Inferential statistics such as odds ratio, confidence interval, and p-value were used to determine the association between variables. Results: The prevalence of anaemia was high (83.0%) and was highest among children aged 37 to 59 months (100%) and females (92.3%).females were 1.3 times more prevalent than their male counterparts. Children aged 37 to 59 and 25 to 36 months were more likely to be anaemic poverty, lack access to cheap food, lack cooking skills and equipment, comprised maternal level of education, poor dietary diversity, anti-nutrient intake, child birth order, maternal parity, mother’s age, child’s age, and other infections like malaria among others were significantly associated with anaemia. Young mothers generally have challenges with child care due to limited resources and experience with child care and their children were more susceptible to anaemia thus poorer health outcomes than those children from older and more experienced mothers. Conclusion: Anaemia is highly prevalent among children and there is a need to invest in measures such as promoting maternal health, providing mothers with information about anaemia and a balanced diet, routine screening and management of anaemia may help in controlling anaemia incidence, especially among children 37 to 59 months. Anaemia intervention programmes in children under five years should target younger and unemployed mothers as well as intensification of maternal education on good dietary diversity for children.
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    Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Faecal Sludge and Banana Peels.
    (Makerere University, 2023) Nakikoola, Berna
    The abundance of agricultural wastes produced from banana peels and human waste from households has resulted in the difficulties of disposing of large amounts of waste. Anaerobic digestion is a way to reduce waste and generate renewable energy sources including biogas. In this study, banana peels were co-digested with faecal sludge in batch experiments under ambient temperature at 25±5°C at a working volume of 18 liters in 20 liters reactors. The effects of different substrate mix ratios on methane yields were investigated. The batch study was conducted at 8% VS at three different substrate ratio faecal sludge to banana peels (FS: BP) (1:1, 1:2 and 1:3) and a control (1:0). Overall biogas collection at 1:3 ratio of FS:BP resulted into the highest biogas production of 26 liters, followed by 1:3 ratio (C2) with 930 ml biogas yield. The highest methane yield was achieved with reactor C2 of 1:3 ratio (15.21 CH4/g VS). In conclusion, the production of methane from pineapple wastes co-digested with cow dung was proven to be a good strategy to minimize solid wastes mainly pineapple waste.
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    Anaerobic co-digestion of Fecal Sludge and cabbage waste for biogas production: a bioinformatics approach
    (Makerere University, 2023) Nabaggala, Martha
    In Sub-Saharan African urban settings, organic waste management and improper disposal of fecal sludge pose critical threats to human health and environmental well-being. Both challenges demand urgent attention and tailored solutions to mitigate their adverse impacts. This research focuses assessing the efficiency of the Thermophilic Anaerobic Digestion (TAD) process for treating FS, co-digesting it with Cabbage Waste (CW) to produce biogas for energy and nutrient-rich bio-slurry for crop cultivation at the same time. 20-liter laboratory batch reactors made of stainless steel for the inner and mild steel for the outer layer with suitable arrangements for feeding, gas collection, and draining of residues were used at a working volume of 18 liters to investigate four substrate ratios: 50F:50C, 75F:25C, 25F:75C, and 100F (FS and CW). A 35-day experiment was done and pH, nutrients (N, P, K, OC), heavy metals, gas composition and volume of gas were all examined. The results showed pH values ranging from mildly acidic to alkaline (6.02 to 8.05), and various nutrient compositions in the mixtures. Biogas composition analysis showed methane levels between 6% and 69.3%, while carbon dioxide levels ranged from 11% to 62.8%. The 75F:25C mixture yielded the highest biogas volume with values greater than or equal to 1 l/day and methane percentage. The respective methane percentages for Weeks 1 through 5 were 21.1%, 61.1%, 57.2%, 62.8%, and 55.3%. The study also highlighted the potential of using digestate as organic fertilizer due to low concentrations of heavy metals (Pb and Cu).
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    Analysing the effectiveness of agronomic practices for the restoration of degraded agricultural landscapes in Goma sub-county, Mukono district, central Uganda.
    (Makerere University, 2023-11-07) Kabugyeya, Phionah ; Munezero, Julia
    To feed the continually increasing global population, agricultural landscape restoration is mandatory. In order to achieve this, there has been an emphasis on the use of agronomic practices for the restoration of degraded agricultural landscapes. This dissertation presents a study about the effectiveness of agronomic practices for the restoration of agricultural landscapes in Goma sub-county, Mukono district in Uganda. The aim of this study was to create awareness about agronomic practices. The study employed a cross-sectional research design and used a mixed research approach involving both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data on prevalent forms of degradation, existing agronomic practices, their effectiveness in agricultural landscape restoration and the challenges farmers face in adoption were collected with the aid of a household questionnaire and Key Informant Interview guide. A total sample of 129 respondents were chosen both randomly and purposively. Out of the129 respondents, five KIIs were purposively sampled which included the Local Chairperson, the Senior Agricultural Officer, the Environmental Officer, and the LC3 Secretary, and 124 household respondents were randomly selected. Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel and STATA tools to generate both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study results showed that most respondents were female (57.3%), most household heads were males (68.5%) and the majority were aged between 31-50 (54.8%). The present study revealed that there was agricultural landscape degradation in the study area with pollution (48%) and soil erosion (38%) as the dominant forms of degradation. These were mainly attributed to poor land use practices such as spraying using herbicides and pesticides and population pressure. The present study further revealed that that the agronomic practices were effective with varying levels of effectiveness but the majority (53%) indicated that the practices were more effective (50%-75%). Generally, adoption of agronomic practices for agricultural landscape restoration was low due to a number of challenges that constrain farmers’ adoption including; limited financial support, land shortage, technical issues, lack of knowledge and labour shortage among others. The study recommends dealing with these constraining factors if adoption and effectiveness is to increase. Including all stakeholders right from the farmers to the higher government officials concerned with agricultural landscape restoration will also increase on adoption rates. The study also recommends further research on the effectiveness of each of the agronomic practices in agricultural landscape restoration.
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    Analysis of Leachate Chromium from Solid waste disposal site at Kiteezi, Kampala City (Uganda)
    (Makerere University, 2013) Ahebwa, Amelia
    Poverty, population growth and high urbanization combined with ineffectual and underfunded governments preventing efficient management of wastes has become of global concern especially in developing countries across the world. Landfilling remains the simplest, cheapest and most cost-effective method of disposing waste, in both developed and developing nations of the world. The most commonly reported danger to human health from these landfills is from the use of surface water and groundwater that has been contaminated by leachate that is discharged into these water bodies from the landfills. Municipal landfill leachates are highly concentrated complex effluents which, among other constituents, contain heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, and xenobiotic organic substances. The main aim of this study therefore was to assess the levels of chromium in the leachate prior to and after treatment at the solid waste disposal site in Kiteezi and further downstream after discharge. Kampala presently has one landfill site located in Kiteezi, Mpererwe. The Kiteezi landfill is a containment site, 29 acres in size and has been filled with waste since 1996. The site poses a health and environmental risk to the neighbouring communities due to poor planning and management of the site. Process inefficiency of leachate treatment in the plant often causes poorly treated leachate quality at the solid waste disposal site. In this study, water samples collected from the site were assessed to determine their chromium concentrations using the Flame atomic absorption spectrometry method. The results obtained of chromium levels in the samples were found to be within the WHO safety standards for drinking and irrigation water.
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    Application of deep learning algorithms to detect and count cattle from remotely sensed imagery
    (Makerere University, 2022-04-12) Omia, Emmanuel
    Effective livestock monitoring and control necessitate an accurate and up-to-date information on animal abundance. The paucity of accurate data on animal abundance has made the monitoring of greenhouse gas emission from livestock farming difficult. Manual counts use analysts to detect and identify animals in Remotely Sensed imagery but this can be time consuming, subjective and costly due to the labor costs for image pre-processing involved. Similarly, on ground count is also very expensive due to large number of human resources involved and limited by small spatial coverage per period. A good estimation of the number of animals is required for reliable reporting of GHG emissions over large areas. The main objective of this study was to integrate the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) algorithms to detect and count the number of cattle in high resolution images from Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and/or satellite-based platforms. The specific objectives were to develop and train an object detector model with aerial images of cows and to test the algorithms for performance accuracy. Remotely sensed images were acquired, preprocessed and annotated using custom python scripts. The You Only Look Once (YOLO) object detector model that utilizes convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture was adopted in building the proposed cattle detection algorithm. Tracking-by-detection approach was used for counting the cattle by applying SORT (Simple Online and Real-time Tracker) algorithms that tracks each detection by assigning unique identity (ID) to each bounding box, and as soon an object is lost due to occlusion, wrong identification, etc. the tracker assigns a new unique identity (ID) and start tracking the newfound object. The algorithm was trained on a total of 2,646 images with varying resolutions to increase its performance. Detection performance was further enhanced by optimizing the input resolution (to 768X768) during testing, and obtained high values of precision, recall and F1-score of up to 100% for high resolution images and fairly isolated animals. Also high Recall of 99.1%, precision of 96.9% and 96.5% F1-score were obtained for lower resolution images. In conclusion, with these results, the developed deep learning algorithm can be deemed scalable for real time cattle detection and counting and hence offering a solution to the paucity of accurate data on animal abundance and avoiding the drawbacks associated with the currently manual technique of animal census.
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    Assessing the Potential of Organic Wastes as Soil Amendments to Increase Water Retention
    (Makerere University, 2019-09-15) Kyazike, Janet Florence
    Water Absorbent Materials are widely proposed for agricultural use with the aim to improve water availability for plants by increasing water holding properties of growing media (soils or soilless substrates). However, commercially found water absorbent materials especially super absorbent polymers (SAPs) are not biodegradable and hence impose environment issues like land pollution. This work aims at assessing the potential of organic wastes as soil amendments to increase water retention. The water retention materials were formulated from polysaccharide rich materials which included sweet potato peels, orange peels irish potato and cassava peels. A small surface area of 2cm pieces of the peels was ensured for ease of carrying out the proceeding activities (drying, fermentation). Sweet potato and irish potato peels underwent fermentation and orange peels boiling for softening.3kg of each of the peels were mixed with 1kg of avocado peels Avocado peels contain oils which prevent clogging when water is poured on the final product. The peels were dried and milled to particle size 250μm. The orange peel based WAM was obtained at this step. The other three underwent gelatinization where after the gel was dried to films which were milled to particle size 250μm and hence WAMs formed. A water retention test was done by measuring the amount of water that was retained by the test sample (30g of the mixture of different WAM to soil ratios. A biodegradability test was also carried out by pouring water on the WAM, putting it in an air tight container and left for a month to see if any growth would appear on it, proving biodegradability. The highest amount of water was retained by the orange peel WAM, cassava peel WAM and sweet potato and Irish potato peel based WAMs in that order. It was also observed that, as the amount of WAM in the soil increased, the water retention of the soil hence increasing the soil’s water retention capacity. The product prepared was found to be biodegradable. It is therefore advisable to use the orange based WAM in the ratios 1:300:60 for WAM (g): water (ml): soil (g) respectively for best results. It was therefore recommended to do more research about how different crops react to different water absorbent materials and how different WAMs perform in a given type of soil.
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    Assessing household energy consumption in Kampala city
    (Makerere University, 2021-02-11) Bazimudde, Jackie Doreen
    Over the years, the population of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda has more than doubled, and this has increased the demand for energy. However, adoption and use of modern energy cooking services remains limited. Over 81% of households use charcoal as their primary source of cooking which poses both health and environmental risks to the users. This study presents findings from a household survey carried out in Kampala city to examine household cooking practices, energy consumption patterns and preferences. It further presents findings from a Kitchen laboratory Controlled Cooking Tests (CCT) which enabled computation of energy consumption and associated costs. The CCT involved preparation of local dishes identified as commonly eaten in Kampala from the surveys using the three commonly used cooking fuels that included; 1) Electricity, 2) LPG and 3) Charcoal. Fuel performance was tested on the amount of time taken to prepare a meal, energy consumption and fuel costs for meal preparation. The CCT focused on two categories of local dishes namely; staples (matooke and rice), stews (beans, beef, groundnut paste and chicken) and boiling water. Results showed that the charcoal, electricity and LPG energy consumption rates per unit cost were; 116.12 UGX/kWh, 735.89 UGX/kWh and 741.7 UGX/kWh respectively. The mean cooking times for charcoal, electricity and LPG were; 100 minutes, 83 minutes and 70 minutes respectively. This means that the high energy consumption rates per unit cost make LPG and electricity expensive to use as compared to charcoal despite the fact that they consume the least time. LPG was the costliest option across all the cooking devices used. For example, it was observed that steaming matooke using an LPG stove cost UGX 1,921which is three times more expensive to use than using a charcoal stove (UGX 645). It can be recommended from this study that energy-efficient and clean technologies as represented by electricity and LPG offer an opportunity for households to cook efficiently and at low cost if prices are further subsidized. However, it is important to address user perceptions as regards adoption of cleaner and modern fuels for cooking.
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    Assessing Irrigation Suitability of Pastures in Nakasongola District Using GIS and Remote Sensing
    (Makerere University, 2021-02) Saagi, Christopher
    Forage is responsible for over 80% of dairy farming production costs. Nakasongola District faces adverse effects of the dry spell on the forage varieties, there is about a 27% reduction of milk produced of which one of the causes is limited feeds which can be solved by irrigation application. However, there is lack of information on suitable areas for pasture irrigation which is crucial for planning and design of appropriate irrigation systems for pasture irrigation. This study was aimed at assessing the irrigation suitability of pastures in Nakasongola District using GIS and Remote Sensing. The study’s decision criteria was based on physical factors that included terrain, climate, soil characteristics and water resources while the socio– economic factor considered were markets. All these factors were represented in ArcGIS 10.5 environment using the GIS datasets of temperature, rainfall, soil type, DEM, distance from Lakes, rivers, and main roads. All data was stored and analysed in model builder in ArcGIS 10.5 environment. The analytical-hierarchical process method was used to obtain the weights for each factor. The results showed that the District has 2.27% of its area highly suitable for pasture growth, 57.14% is moderately suitable, marginally suitable covers 10.44% while not suitable covers 30.14%. The sub-counties of Nakitoma, Nabiswera, Kakooge, Wabinyonyi, and Nakasongola were among the highly suitable areas for pasture growth. Flooding was suitable for almost 0.006% of the district, furrow irrigation suitability 6.75%, while sprinkler irrigation suitability covers about 68% while 26% was not suitable for irrigation. The farmers and investors are highly recommended to plant and irrigate pastures in the selected most suitable areas so as to ensure constant provision of forage for dairy farming throughout the year and maximise both milk production and income. The farmers in not suitable areas can apply fertilizers to soils and invest in water reservoirs to make pasture growth and irrigation possible.
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    Assessing quality of selected retail dried spices sold in Kampala uganda.
    (Makerere university, 2025-07-01) Natukunda, Esther
    Spices are widely used in food preparation, but their moisture content and microbial contamination can significantly impact food safety and shelf life. This study assessed the moisture content and microbial quality of selected retail spices (ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon) sold in markets (Kalerwe, Owino, Nakasero, and Kasubi) within Kampala, Uganda. Moisture content (%) varied from 9.2 ± 0.8 (ginger from Nakasero) to 13.6 ± 1.7 (cinnamon from Nakasero). The samples were analyzed for Escherichia coli, total coliforms, Staphylococcus aureus, and yeasts and molds with results expressed as mean ± standard deviation in log CFU/g. The findings indicated varying levels of contamination across markets and spice types. Total coliform counts were highest in turmeric samples from Owino (5.19 ± 1.6 log CFU/g) and Nakasero (5.66 ± 0.7 log CFU/g), suggesting possible post-harvest contamination. Yeasts and molds were prevalent in all spices, with values ranging from 2.94 ± 0.8 to 3.95 ± 0.2 log CFU/g, while Staphylococcus spp. was detected at levels up to 4.9 ± 0.2 log CFU/g in turmeric from Nakasero. These findings highlight the need for improved hygiene practices in spice handling and storage to minimize microbial contamination and enhance consumer safety.
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    Assessing risk factors associated with overweight and obesity among the employees of Arua Regional referral Hospital
    (Makerere University, 2019-08-28) Adam, Ismail
    ABSTRACT Overweight and obesity are important addendum to the pool of risk factors for non-communicable disease (NCD) among the employees. The objective of this study was to establish the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the employees of Arua Regional referral Hospital and the associated risk factors. This cross sectional-based study was conducted among the employees during June and July 2019. A pretested interview schedule was used to obtain information on socio-demographic details and history of NCD risk factors after obtaining verbal and non-verbal informed consent. Anthropometric measurements were taken as per standard procedures prescribed by the World Health Organization. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated and classified using world health organization BMI classification standards. The prevalence of overweight was 8% and 12% among male and females respectively. The proportion of obesity was high among females 3% as compared to male counterparts (1%). Overweight and obesity were high among employees who were consuming alcohol and doing less physical activity than those who were not consuming Alcohol and doing more physical exercise. Overweight and obesity was higher in employees who are non-tobacco users and those with unhealthy diet than their counterparts The study concludes that overweight and obesity were not a health risk factor among the employees in Arua Referral Hospital and there is an association between factors associated with overweight and obesity and these are; physically activity, transport means for travelling to and from work, use family planning methods and use of Antiretroviral therapy.
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    Assessing the capacity of village health team workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years in Kabonero Subcounty, Bunyangabu district, Uganda
    (Makerere University, 2021-02-17) Abesiga, Joseph
    The purpose of this study was to assess the capacity of village health workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district. The specific objectives of the study were; 1) To establish how early screening of acute malnutrition is done, 2) to assess the knowledge of village health team workers, 3) to find out the nutrition related activities done by village health team workers in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district, and 4) to find out the challenges faced by village health team workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district. The study applied descriptive case study design to collect data from a sample size of 96 VHTs using questionnaires. The data was quantitatively analyzed using SPSS V15.0. The study findings indicated that; the anthropometric tools used by VHTs are; weighing scale, MUAC tape, height/length board 8 and the least 5 others who uses the tape measure. The highest number of the VHTs knew about early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years and the least did not know. The factors considered in early screening of children for malnutrition were, age, weight, sex, height and others consider physical appearance and growth rate of the child while screening for malnutrition. The Nutrition related activities done by village health team workers in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district are; encouraged parents to feed their children on a balanced diet, educating parents on making a nutritional plan for their children, promoting exclusive breast feeding among mothers for at least 2 years and encouraging sanitation and clean food preparation practices among parents. The Challenges faced by village health team workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years were; lack of transport, limited motivation, low literacy levels and limited essential nutritional commodities. However negative community attitude, inadequate skills and training and limited political support were the least challenges faced by VHTs. The study concluded that the VHTs had the capacity to screen children under five years for malnutrition. The study therefore recommended that further studies should be done covering the whole country to identify the overall capacity of VHTs in screening of malnutrition to aid government nutritional policy formulation and implementation
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    Assessing the consumption of fruits and vegetables among lecturers of Makerere University
    (Makerere University, 2025) Oluka, Gloria Marion
    Adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables is widely recognized as a key component of a healthy diet, contributing to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Despite this, many populations, including academic institution often fall short of the recommended intake levels. The main aim of the study was to establish consumption levels of fruit and vegetables among the lecturers of Makerere University. A cross-sectional study was conducted and data was collected using a structured questionnaire, while frequency of consumption was determined using the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The factors influencing fruits and vegetable (FV) consumption were mainly availability and high prices which affected access and to a certain extent gender and age. The sample size was one hundred (100) respondents who were analyzed using SPSS to obtain frequencies, means and correlations. The results of the 100 participants show that 61% consumed their meals with ¼ of fruits and vegetables. Marital status was found to be significantly different, with the married lecturers tending to consume more servings of fruits and vegetables (68%) on average compared to the single lecturers (32%). The mean number of servings consumed. Only 12% met the WHO recommendation of 5 servings a day with the average number of servings consumed in a day being 2.7 servings. In conclusion, there is a low consumption of fruits and vegetables by lecturers of Makerere University. Vegetables are more frequently consumed than fruits and the females consume more fruits and vegetables than males. Nutrition advocacy and education are key in improving the dietary patterns of the study population.