Vegetable farmers in urban Ghana don't worry much about food safety - but they should

Urban farmers in Ghana need to take greater interest in the health of consumers. Wikimedia Commons

The availability of land is one issue. Another is water. In urban Ghana, access to safe or treated water for urban vegetable farming is limited. Consequently, farmers have been pushed into using wastewater and urban streams for their vegetable farming operations.

A number of studies have shown the potential health risks of unsafe vegetable farming practices in Ghana, but the farmers’ perceptions of those risks has not received as much attention. It is important to know how farmers see the situation so as to encourage positive changes.

In our study we asked urban vegetable farmers in Kumasi, Ghana about their use of contaminated water, pesticides and manures to grow vegetables. We found that farming was largely unsafe as a result of over-reliance on contaminated wastewater, manure and pesticides, even though most of the farmers said their produce was safe for people to eat.

Research however has shown a link between urban agricultural practices and health problems like diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera.

Farmers’ views of health risks

The study area is dotted with vegetable farming sites, cultivated throughout the year. Most of these farmers depend on polluted streams to irrigate their crops. Laboratory testing of sampled irrigation water and vegetables showed contamination beyond the acceptable level for human consumption.

The farmers in our study did not accept that the quality of water they used could potentially cause diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. One of them had this to say:

There are no contaminants or germs in the water. We have been using this water for a long time without any problem … Contaminated water can’t produce healthy crops like these ones.

I have a wife and four children. My source of livelihood is this vegetable farming. This is all I do for a living. If dirty water is the only one available, I would have no option but to use it.

Since I have been in this business for long, it is the experience that counts. We don’t follow strictly any standard measure when applying chemical and manure to our crops. Yet, we produce good-looking vegetables.

On the question of whether manures or fertilisers could have negative environmental and health effects, no respondent in the study could identify any specific effect. But the general perception was that excessive use could bring undesirable consequences.

The farmers justified their practices by saying that they themselves did not experience health problems relating to contaminated vegetables and had never received any negative feedback from the public. Besides, since consumers are expected to wash vegetables, they said, any potential on-farm contamination was unlikely to put the health of the consuming public at risk. A respondent said:

We have been doing this for several years and no one has ever complained about any illness. I eat the vegetables myself, you just have to wash it to remove the contaminants. If our vegetables were unsafe, we would have been the first victims.

The farmers’ position that both the water they use and the vegetables are free from any contaminants may be interpreted as a defence against public disapproval of their unsafe methods of vegetable cultivation and, in particular, media campaigns against wastewater use. It is also true that ailments could be attributed to other causes, not just contaminated vegetables. Like most city dwellers, the farmers in our study are beset daily with many potentially health-affecting conditions. Unsanitary conditions and associated ailments are routine parts of their lives.

What to do about it

Vegetable farming practices in Kumasi are potential threats to public health. The continuous use of polluted water and incorrect application of agrochemicals and manures creates a worrying situation. But more worrying is farmers’ limited knowledge of the risks their practices pose to their health and that of the public at large.

Legislative enforcement to ensure that farmers comply with food safety standards is key to protecting public health. The Environmental Health Department of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture should intensify their monitoring operations to ensure that vegetable farming is carried out in a safe manner.

Efforts are needed to make the public aware of the health risks of using contaminated water and the wrong use of pesticides and manures. This message could be conveyed through the mass media and agricultural extension services, targeting farmers, market sellers, food vendors and consumers.

Finally, the city must manage waste properly to improve environmental sanitation.

Abdul Wahid Arimiyaw of the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d'Ivoire contributed to writing this article.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.