Aflatoxins contamination needs to be tackled - stakeholders

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) on Wednesday held a meeting to chart the way forward to mitigate Aflatoxin, not only in maize, but in all grains.

The meeting, which is stakeholder driven, aims at facilitating a collective action around the promotion of innovations in Africa’s agriculture; strengthening capacity to enhance the functionality of agricultural innovation systems in Africa and offer intellectual leadership for Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) in Africa.

Aflatoxins are naturally occurring harmful toxins produced by the fungi Aspergillus Flavus Link ex Fries and Aspergillus Parasiticus Speare, which are highly toxic to humans and animals.

The toxins are known to cause a number of human and animal health problems, such as immune-suppression, kwashiorkor, impairment of liver function, and reduced growth rate or stunting.

They are also potent liver carcinogens. Aflatoxin-producing moulds affect grain and other food crops – maize and groundnuts in particular.

Millions of people living in Africa are exposed to high, unsafe levels of Aflatoxin through their diet. Meanwhile, farmers miss out on export opportunities since their products do not meet international food safety standards.

Aflatoxins contamination in foods and feeds is an agricultural, health and trade issue, which needs to be tackled with urgency.

For this reason, African stakeholders, led by the African Union Commission formed the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) during the 7th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Partnership Platform (CAADP) meeting in 2011, as an innovative consortium that aims at coordinating Aflatoxin mitigation and management across the agriculture, health and trade sectors.

By combating these toxins, PACA will contribute to improving food security, health, and trade across the African continent. PACA has elaborated a 10-year Strategy (2013-2022) to guide its actions.

However, awareness on the deleterious effects of Aflatoxin is fast rising and there is increasing demand by country stakeholders for action.

Dr Oseyemi Akinbamijo, the FARA Executive Director, said the menace imposes an enormous socio-economic cost to society through loss of commodity value, reduced productivity in animals (i.e. eggs in poultry and milk in dairy) and also prevents commodities from meeting international, regional and local regulations and standards governing agricultural trade and food safety.

He said the estimated annual loss to African food exporters of cereals, dried fruit and nuts, which does not meet EU Aflatoxin standards, is roughly $670 million.

As the aflatoxin problem spans the agriculture, health and trade nexus, control and mitigation measures should be multi-sectoral in nature, he said.

Aflatoxin mitigation strategies broadly involve legislative (regulatory) or preventive measures, he said, adding that, in food insecure countries like those in Sub Saharan Africa, regulations do little to mitigate the effects of aflatoxin due to lack of options (i.e. foods with aflatoxin levels above legislative levels are nonetheless consumed by communities because they do not have alternative sources of food).

Focus should, therefore, be on promoting the adoption of preventive strategies that can control aflatoxin and its associated health risks during storage and processing, or in the diet.

“By convening this workshop, FARA is responding to an important demand articulation by Ghanaian stakeholders, while the aim of the workshop itself relates directly to FARA’s flagship action area: IAR4D using innovation platforms”.

“As small producers/farmers, mainly women, are those usually hit hardest, it is instructive that the Ghana Federation of Agricultural Producers conceived the idea of an initial brainstorming workshop towards establishment of innovation platforms to manage aflatoxin in Ghana” he said.

Prof Richard Awuah, Professor of Plant Pathology and Mycology of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, who presented a paper on the situational analysis of Aflatoxin in Ghana, said the situation was very real, and that, the menace should not be taken lightly.

He said as a country, whose diet are basically maize based, postharvest handling of produce should be taken seriously and farmers educated on how to mitigate Aflatoxin contamination.

Prof Awuah said some studies have shown that Aflatoxin had caused fertility problems in both men and women, and added that, farmers should be taught on how to dry maize properly to avoid moulds, sort out the good grains form the bad, such as broken and shrivelled grains, to mitigate contamination.

Mr Gabriel Essilfie, Chairman of the Parliamentary select Committee on Food and Agriculture and Cocoa affairs, said the situation was alarming and recommended that a nationwide education should be rolled out to mitigate the menace, which could explain for the strange diseases and death.

The value proposition of FARA is strengthening Africa’s capacity for agricultural innovation and transformation. A key action under this value proposition is mobilizing, connecting and rallying stakeholders for collaborative and concerted actions around issues and challenges that affect agricultural productivity, food security and trade, based on the CAADP framework.

Dr Oluwole Fatunbi, the Divisional Manager, Visioning and Knowledge Management at FARA, who discussed how to form innovation platforms to address the issue of Aflatoxin, explained that the platform has been designed to overcome the shortcomings of traditional research and development system.

“It is a collaborative arrangement to bring organisations and individuals to work towards a desired change” he said.