Rural Business
Aflatoxins –
Saving African
Food from
Contamination
Farmer Vongai Musembwa
from Makoni District in
Zimbabwe stores her maize
grain in a metal silo an
effective method in preventing
aflatoxin contamination.
Photo by Busani Bafana
Vongai Musembwa's eyes light up as she scoops
up healthy white grains from a metal bin she
uses to store newly harvested maize. Happily,
they're free of a naturally occurring poison —
a atoxin — that can contaminate crops in the
eld, before or aer harvest and during storage.
e metal silo protects the grains from a atoxin
— produced by certain fungi that grow on food
crops like maize, millet, sorghum, groundnuts,
cassava and rice.
Ms. Musembwa is one of more than 260
smallholder farmers in Makoni District, east of
Zimbabwe's capital Harare, who have switched
to non-chemical hermetic storage to prevent
food from contamination. Musembwa received
her metal silo from a local organization, under a
multi-partner project seeking to prevent
a atoxins contamination of maize grain.
e Makoni District farmers are participants
in a two-year project worth $1.6 million
supported by the Cultivate Africa's Future
programme, an initiative funded by Canada's
International Development Research Centre
and the Australian Centre for International
Agriculture Research. Under the project,
Zimbabwean farmers are given access to metal
November - December 2016
silos and thick plastic “superbags” to determine
if improved storage can reduce a atoxin
contamination in local maize grain.
Crops contaminated by a atoxins develop
moulds and acquire a dark colour. Livestock
and humans can fall sick or die aer eating
contaminated food grains. It has also been
linked to childhood stunting, liver cancer and
immune suppression in adults.
Scientists warn that extreme weather is
increasing the level of health-damaging toxic
chemicals in crops, including staple foods
which are key to food, nutrition and trade
security in Africa. To protect themselves
against extreme weather, plants generate
a atoxins, according to the United Nations
Environment Programme.
“A atoxins are pervasive in African food
systems negatively impacting health of women
and children, income from agriculture value
chains, and food safety and security of nations,”
says RanajitBandyopadhyay, a senior plant
pathologist at the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA), where he guides
research and development activities on crop
diseases and poisonous chemicals produced by
[40] FARMERS
REVIEW AFRICA
certain fungi known as mycotoxins.
Bandyopadhyay, said people fall sick, farmers
lose income, grains are destroyed, food prices
soar, pro tability of animal industries declines,
reputation of African exports are tainted and
nations become less food secure due to a atoxin
contamination.
“A atoxin contamination presents a barrier to
trade and economic growth and is a serious
obstacle to programmes designed to improve
nutrition and agricultural production while
linking smallholder farmers to markets,”
Bandyopadhyay said. “ e extent of
contamination varies by seasons, crops and
regions and can be anywhere from none to 100%
and oen hovers around 25%.”
R h o d a P e a c e Tu m u s i i m e , t h e AU C ' s
commissioner for rural economy and agriculture
s a i d c u r b i n g t h e m e n a c e o f a at ox i n
contamination was critical to improving child
and maternal nutrition and health as well as
achieving Africa's goal to transform its
agriculture.
Farmers are particularly vulnerable to fungal
poisons, according to a 2015 baseline study to
reduce maize-based a atoxin contamination
www.farmersreviewafrica.com