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| H.E Roda Tumusiime with Ugandan President Museveni in Entebbe |
FOOD security exists when all people have access to sufficient amounts of safe, nutritious and affordable food to provide the needed nutrients for their bodies.
But the convergence of many factors contributes to the challenge of achieving food security in Africa and one of these is the aflatoxins contamination in maize and other cereals in sub-Saharan Africa.
Like other continents too, Africa faces many challenges on the food front. The continent is grappling with efforts to feed its increasing population, projected to reach 2 billion by 2050, by the African Union.
The presence of aflatoxins in foods has adversely affected not only the grain milling sector of the economy but also the health of the population and the ability of the continent to trade with the rest of the world.
Aflatoxins are toxic and cancer- causing poisons produced by a certain green mould fungus that naturally occurs in the soil. The poisons have become a serious contaminant of staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa, like maize, cassava, sorghum, yam, rice, groundnuts and cashews.
Perhaps no issue straddles the cereals sector in Africa like the issue of aflatoxins. The problem of aflatoxins in many African diets has had a huge effect but many a time goes unnoticed on the population of Africa until death occurs.
But to mitigate and control the aflatoxins contamination, Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) Program manager Dr Amare Ayalew, based at the African Union Commission since its inception, says PACA has made tremendous achievements in mitigating the impact of aflatoxin contamination on the African continent.
Dr Ayalew says aflatoxin contamination has been a challenge because it can take place at any of the three stages in food production.
“Food contamination of aflatoxins can happen at production, storage and processing. One impressive thing is that Africa is making tremendous progress in addressing this challenge. Laboratories in some pilot countries have been established to detect and control aflatoxin contamination,” Dr Ayalew said.
Among the many other achievements made by PACA since its inception in 2012 is the generation and use of locally relevant evidence or indeed country-led situation analysis and action planning, and policy scoping studies across regional economic communities.
Dr Ayalew says capacity has been built for surveillance of aflatoxin contamination and evidence generation in seven pilot countries. These are Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, The Gambia, Nigeria and Kenya.
The presence of aflatoxins in maize, peanuts and other cereals is extremely critical in a continent where there are many challenges; including low productivity of cereals due to poor agronomic practices, high levels of post-harvest losses, low levels of sophistication in processing and handling of grains, frequent shortages that often lead to famines, and high consumer prices of grain.
The issue of aflatoxins in cereals is a huge impediment to the nutritional and economic well-being of Africa’s population.
For the cereal handling and milling sector of the food industry, the economic and nutritional effects of aflatoxin in grains are huge.
Despite the numerous achievements made, African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture Rhoda Peace Tumusiime still feels the need for a coordinated approach in addressing health and nutritional hazard.
“We need more awareness innovations and we need national governments on the continent to create awareness to farmers, traders, processors and consumers on this issue; establish and invest in data collection and enforce the regulations, especially on standards of various products,” she said.
Speaking at the 2nd PACA meeting here in Entebbe, Uganda, Ms Tumusiime said aflatoxins tend to affect Africa quite drastically as the entire continent falls within the 40 N and 40 S of the equator, where aflatoxin prevalence is most common.
She noted that in Africa, the problem is caused by various factors such as drought, poor agricultural practices, as well as improper storage and post-harvest handling systems adding that it is further exacerbated due to heavy dietary reliance on staple foods such as maize and groundnuts, which are highly susceptible to aflatoxin.
Recent research indicates that the occurrence of aflatoxins is common in peanuts, tree nuts, maize, and animal feeds while they are occasionally found in milk, cheese, cottonseed, nuts, almonds, figs, spices, and a variety of other foods and feeds. Milk, eggs, and meat products are sometimes contaminated because of the animal consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated feed.
And an agribusiness, trade, commodity marketing and policy expert, Cris Muyunda, says it is critical to note that aflatoxin contamination starts at the farm, and that measures to control the menace should start from planting, harvesting, post-harvest handling, storage and distribution.
Dr Muyunda, who is also Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) NonState Actors Coalition (CNC) deputy chairperson, said while on the farm contamination is the least appreciated by many, further contamination can occur during drying, especially on the soil, and at storage or transport.
“On the farm, aflatoxins contaminate the crop if harvesting is delayed and if the moisture content of the crop exceeds the required for crops stored at the farm after harvest. Bird and rodent attack of the crop at the farm is a great contributor to aflatoxin contamination,” Dr Muyunda said.
And in their recent studies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 25 percent of the world’s crop is affected by mycotoxins, the majority of which is aflatoxins, or about 4.5 billion of the current 7 billion population of the world.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, an estimated 26,000 people die annually of liver cancer associated with food stuffs with aflatoxin exposure.
Between June and September 2016, Tanzania recorded 17 deaths resulting from consumption of aflatoxin.
Aflatoxins and other mycotoxins affect trade, consumer safety and the economic health of the population and countries. Aflatoxins exhibit potent carcinogenic effect in susceptible laboratory animals and have acute toxicological effects in humans.
The effect on trade is also enormous. It is estimated that Africa loses US$450 million a year from lost export trade due to aflatoxins.
With all these negative effects of aflatoxin on Africa’s dream of becoming food-secure by 2063, the need to mitigate and control aflatoxins is huge and urgent.
The devastating effects of maize grain contaminated with aflatoxins on the Sub-Saharan households cannot be understated.
Maize and other cereals are the continent’s daily bread. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON OCTOBER 16, 2016. Link: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=82778
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