Abstract
Low quality water has become valuable resource with restricted or unrestricted use in food production depending on its quality. This study has quantified the occurrence of Escherichia coli in Brassica rapa L. chinensis (Chinese cabbage) vegetables and low quality irrigation water. A total of 106 samples including Chinese cabbage (69) and water (37) were collected. The E. coli were cultured in petri film selective E. coli plates at 44°C. The Chinese cabbage irrigated with river water at Fungafunga area indicated significantly (P<0.001) high prevalence 86% (n=21, 0.00-4.10 log cfu/g) of E. coli than those irrigated with treated wastewater at Mazimbu 10% (n=48, 0.00-1.36 log cfu/g). The mean counts of E. coli in untreated wastewater ranged from 4.59 to 5.56 log cfu/mL, while in treated wastewater was from 0.54 to 1.05 log cfu/mL and in river water it was 2.40 log cfu/mL. Treated wastewater of the quality found in this study could be used for food production. Key words: Agricultural irrigation, Chinese cabbage, incidental inputs, river water, wastewater.
Highlights
The term low quality irrigation water (LQIW) used in this study covers different types of water used for irrigation of crops in urban and peri urban areas of Morogoro municipality
The Chinese cabbage irrigated with river water at Fungafunga area indicated significantly (P
Different types of vegetables are grown in the study sites including Sweet potato, Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. chinensis), pumpkin leaves, Swiss chard, Brassica carinata, amaranthus and cowpeas
Summary
The term low quality irrigation water (LQIW) used in this study covers different types of water used for irrigation of crops in urban and peri urban areas of Morogoro municipality. Low quality irrigation water has become valuable resource with restricted or unrestricted use in food production depending on its quality (World Health Organization, 2006a, b, c). It is a valuable and reliable resource for irrigation and fertilizing soils (Babayan et al, 2012) in the Middle East (Ensink et al, 2007) as well as in African countries (Alemayehu et al, 2015). The sustainable use and management of LQIW for food production systems may certainly increase crop yields (Valipour, 2013)
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