By Simon Munyeki
For long farmers who have been producing
cereals in the tropical climatic regions around the world have been struggling
with aflatoxin poisoning which has lead to deaths of both humans and animals
who consume aflatoxin contaminated food without their knowledge. Aflatoxin
affect several cereal crops e.g maize, groundnuts, rice, sorghum as well as oil
seeds such as sunflower and sesame, pulses, root crops eg cassava, dried
chillies etc which forms the agricultural backbone of most developing
countries.
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| Moses lokwawi issuing aflasafe |
The
trend of aflatoxin contamination in food and feeds has been increasing over the
years. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO), 25% world’s food crops are
contaminated with mycotoxins, while World Health Organization (WHO) estimates
suggests that there are more than five billion people world wide at risk of
chronic exposure to aflatoxins(WHO, 2005).
In sub Saharan Africa, there is high exposure
to aflatoxin due to continuous consumption of contaminated staple foods like
maize, rice and groundnuts. Humans are further exposed to aflatoxins through
animal source foods such as milk produced by animals which are fed on
aflatoxin-contaminated feed.
The government has set
limits for aflatoxins in food and feed In order to reduce exposure, the legal
limits of aflatoxin contamination in cereals is ten parts per billion although
there has been incidences where maize has been tested positive of up to a hundred
times higher than the recommended amount of aflatoxin contamination especially
in Makueni county.
Consumption of
contaminated food causes diseases which are commonly known as aflatoxicosis, these diseases leads to low
immunity, stunted growth in children and liver cancer which eventually leads to loss of
human lives and livestock.
Aflatoxin is caused by a
species of fungi called Aspergillus sp which is naturally found in soil as a
saprophyte, it is also opportunistic and dominates mainly in environments rich
in carbon and nitrogen such as decaying plant parts. The most common types of
aflatoxins are B1, B2, G1 and G2 although B1 is the most toxic of all other
types.
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| maize at the right stage to apply aflasafe |
Kenya Agricultural and
Livestock Research Organization ( KARLO) has partnered with other institutions
in Africa and the world to develop Aflasafe a compound which has been tested in
other parts of the world and proven to suppress the growth of the toxic aflatoxin
fungus.
Aflasafe is applied by
evenly broadcasting on the maize crop at the rate of 4kg of aflasafe per acre/
10kg per hectare, once every season. It is applied two to three weeks before
tussling, farmer should apply aflasafe while the soil is moist to facilitate
growth of fungus found in aflasafe.
