Laboratory Technician, Herbert Mtopa collects biological samples at a clinic in Zimbabwe's Shamva District under a CultiAF project to assess exposure of women and children to aflatoxins. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Nov 20 2015 (IPS)

Aflatoxin contamination is a growing threat to trade, food and health security in sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholder farmers are challenged by food production and now climate change, researchers said.

Aflatoxins are toxic and cancer causing poisons produced by certain green mould fungus that naturally occurs in the soil. The poisons have become a serious contaminant of staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa including maize, cassava, sorghum, yam, rice, groundnut and cashews.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), an international not for profit organisation based in Nigeria has led pioneering research in reducing mycotoxin contamination in Africa through rolling out innovative approaches.

According to IITA researchers, exposure to mycotoxins is an important constraint to improving the health and well-being of people in Africa where high levels of aflatoxin contamination have been confirmed. Many smallholder farmers fail to prevent contamination during production and storage of their crops because they lack cost-effective ways to determine the poisons.

Sub-Saharan Africa is annually losing more than 450 million dollars in trade revenue of major staples, particularly maize, and groundnuts as a result of contamination from aflatoxins, researchers told IPS. The health bill as a result of people unknowingly eating contaminated food runs into millions of dollars in a region with over burdened health facilities.

Africa is at risk of toxins which are linked to suppressed immunity, liver cancer in humans and stunting in children. UNICEF says 40 per cent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are stunted or have low height for their age which can be associated with impaired brain development.

Researchers say high temperatures and drought conditions favour the growth of fungus, while poor farming practises and food insecurity status of many people in sub-Saharan Africa increase their exposure to aflatoxin contamination. In addition high soil moisture content at harvest attributed to off-season rains as a result of climate variability increases contamination.

“Climate change is indeed predicted to have a profound effect on aflatoxin contamination of food and feed crops,” said Joao, adding that, “Consequently, any reduction in precipitation level or increment in temperature is expected to make aflatoxin problem more acute.”

In 2009, the IITA, the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), United States Department of Agriculture –Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) and other partners developed an indigenous biological control technology, named AflaSafe to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in maize and groundnuts.

Aflasafe is a mixture of four non-aflatoxin producing strains of the green mould fungus (Aspergilllus flavus) of native origin. The formulated Aflasafe product is then broadcast in the field where it grows and prevents the toxin producing strains from colonizing, multiplying and contaminating crops.

Focused aflatoxin biocontrol research in Africa first started in Nigeria where Aflasafe is today a fully registered commercial product. Country specific products have been developed and introduced in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Senegal, The Gambia and Zambia.

In all the six countries where the bio control products have been tested since 2008 to date, IITA said farmers have consistently achieved up to 99 per cent reduction in aflatoxin contamination by using Aflasafe in maize and groundnut fields.

“The benefits attributed to using the Aflasafe bio control product for mitigating aflatoxin contamination far outweighs its cost,” said Juliet Akello, a plant pathologist and member of the IITA team in Zambia under Aflatoxin Biocontrol. “Exposure to aflatoxin through consumption of contaminated foods is a combination of unawareness, poverty and poor enforcement of standards by governments.”

Globally aflatoxins are a known threat that have been reduced thanks to investment in food safely controls. Smallholder farmers in Africa rely on a combination of traditional storage methods and use of pesticides to prevent weevils. However, these methods are not always pest proof leading to them losing a bulk of the stored crop by the time they need it most.

Other innovative approaches are being tried in Africa to curbing pre and post harvest losses in addition to eliminating aflatoxin contamination using Aflasafe.

In Zimbabwe, researchers at the University of Zimbabwe and Action Contre la Faim are working with communities in two districts to investigate whether improved storage can reduce aflatoxin contamination in local maize grain. The two-year research, supported by the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF) programme, an initiative funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IRDC) and the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research, will also assess levels of exposure suffered by women and infants. The project has introduced a metal silos and thick plastic “super bags,” allowing maize to be stored in air-tight conditions.

Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are challenged by lack of drying equipment, with most maize and groundnut farmers keeping their crops in fields to dry out before harvest. Sometimes, they store it before it has dried properly, making it vulnerable to aflatoxin attack.

Exports of agricultural commodities particularly peanuts from Africa have declined by as much as 20 per cent over the past two decades. The commodities have been rejected after failing to meet the European Union’s market regulations on aflatoxin levels in foods for human consumption, a serious hurdle to international trade.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, only 15 African countries had regulatory limits for aflatoxins by 2013.

In Zambia, for example, nearly 100 per cent of the peanut butter brands sampled between 2012 and 2014 from supermarkets and local markets were found to contain unsafe levels of aflatoxins above 20ppb. Less than 30 per cent of milled groundnut flour collected from markets and homesteads had levels within the 4 ppb set by the EU as safe limits.

While in Kenya, considered the number one aflatoxin hotspot in East Africa, nearly 200 died due to acute aflatoxicosis after eating aflatoxin contaminated maize between 2004 and 2006. About 2 million maize bags were found unfit for human consumption due to high levels of aflatoxins in 2010.

IITA’s programme manager for Aflasafe in Malawi, Dr. Joseph Atehnkeng, said between 40 and 100 per cent of groundnut based-commodities in Malawi, were found to contain unsafe toxin levels.

Former net groundnut exporters; Mozambique, Senegal, The Gambia, Zambia and Malawi have lost lucrative markers in the EU, the United States and South Africa because of high aflatoxin levels in their commodities, says IITA scientist and plant pathologist, Dr. Joao Augusto.

Mozambique has since the late 70s, recorded a high prevalence of liver cancer in the southern part of the country which has been associated with consumption of aflatoxin contaminated food, especially groundnuts.

According to the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control (PACA), a regional project formed in 2009 to minimise and ultimately eradicate aflatoxins using proven and innovative strategies, there is a need for effective aflatoxin regulation policies and country-specific standards.

Researcher, Chapwa Kasoma from Zambia, warns that left unchecked, aflatoxin contamination could retard development in sub-Saharan Africa.

“If we want to overcome poverty in all its forms; combating not only the inadequacy of food but also addressing any forms of malnutrition we need to be worried,” Chapwa, also a field supervisor with Pioneer DuPont, told IPS. “Being potent carcinogens, aflatoxins are clearly a nutrition problem.”

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Calling for climate action at the People’s Climate March in Paris, Sep. 21, 2014. Credit: A.D. McKenzie/IPS

By A. D. McKenzie
PARIS, Sep 21 2014 (IPS)

As if to highlight the reality of climate change, the rain came pouring down here as demonstrators prepared to rally for political action to combat global warming.

But as the march got under way from Paris’ historic Place de la Republique, bright sunshine broke from behind the ominous clouds, giving a boost to the several thousand people who had heeded the call to send a message to world leaders.

“I’m here because we need to make governments realise that a new economic model that respects nature must be possible,” street artist Rémi Gautier told IPS. “We need to work for the future.”“It’s the poor who feel the greatest impact of global warming. Laws on the environment must do more for more people. We can’t continue with the status quo” – Monique Morellec, Front de Gauche (Left Front) activist

The Paris march was one of 2,500 events that took place around the world Sunday, involving 158 countries, according to Avaaz, the international civic organisation that coordinated the “People’s Climate March” in Paris.  French cities Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux also held marches.

The demonstrations came two days ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Summit scheduled for Tuesday, when world leaders will gather in New York to discuss the wide-ranging effects of global warming, including ocean acidification, extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels.

“The leaders can’t ignore this massive call for action,” said Marie Yared, an Avaaz global campaigner in Paris. “The message is much stronger now because we’re seeing people in all their diversity making their voices heard. It’s not just activists.

To reflect the global concern, the rallying cry at the march was: “To change everything, we need everyone (Pour tout changer, il faut tout le monde).” The diversity of those taking part was notable, with demonstrators including senior citizens, students, children, non-governmental organisations, union members and religious groups.

Citizen carrying a succinct CLIMATE IN DANGER warning at the People’s Climate March in Paris, Sep. 21, 2014. Credit: A.D. McKenzie/IPS

They chanted, beat drums, danced and carried large banners as well as self-made drawings and signs. Other demonstrators met the marchers as the rally moved to the square in front of the city’s town hall.

The largest French Protestant organization, the Fédération Protestante de France, had urged its members to participate in the movement, saying “it’s time to change the course of things”.

“From New York to Berlin, from Bogota to New Delhi, from Paris to Melbourne, thousands of people are marching together to make their voices heard and to remind heads of state that the climate issue is universal, urgent and affects ecosystems and the future of mankind,” the Federation stated.

Joining in were farmers organisations, Oxfam France, Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), Catholic groups and others who wanted to draw attention to the less obvious consequences of global warming, which also affects food security and has created “climate refugees”.

“It’s the poor who feel the greatest impact of global warming,” Monique Morellec, a Front de Gauche (Left Front) activist, told IPS. “Laws on the environment must do more for more people. We can’t continue with the status quo.”

The Left Front was one of the political parties, including Europe Ecologie Les Verts (Greens) and Jeunes Socialistes (Young Socialists), that was out in support as well, with members handing out leaflets bearing the slogan: “We must change the system, not the climate”.

Participating groups stressed that France has a crucial role to play because Paris will be the host city of the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21) where binding agreements are expected to be made on reducing carbon emissions.

“People need to stay alert and to keep the politicians awake until we see what happens next year in Paris,” Yared of Avaaz told IPS.

Some rights organisations that did not take part in the march are planning their own events to put pressure on politicians to act. Amnesty International is launching a campaign on Sep. 23 titled “Faites Pas l’Autruche (Don’t be an ostrich, don’t ignore what’s going on) to highlight the lack of laws governing multinational companies whose local subsidiaries may cause human rights violations.

The group wants French lawmakers to enact a law that will hold companies to account, an Amnesty spokesperson told IPS, citing incidents such as oil pollution in Nigeria and the dumping of toxic waste in Cote d’Ivoire.

The group said that victims of corporate malfeasance should have recourse to French law and courts, wherever they happen to live.  To raise public awareness, Amnesty will hold demonstrations at political landmarks in Paris, such as at the Assemblée Nationale, the seat of parliament, on the day that leaders meet in New York.

(Edited by Phil Harris)