Experts advice that campaign against the toxic compounds should emphasise on behaviour change.
In the absence of concerted efforts to raise awareness on the dangers of aflatoxin to humans and domestic animals, advances in technology for early detection of aflatoxin in cereals and seeds such as maize will come to naught, experts warn.
The first rapid aflatoxin testing kit is in the market for less than two dollars, even as some farmers unwittingly employ life-threatening tricks to earn a bit more from their harvests.
John Cheruiyot, a maize farmer in Uasin Gishu County, Rift Valley region revealed to IPS that growers pour water on maize post-harvest to manipulate its weight to dupe buyers into paying more than the grains are worth.
“Maize is sold based on kilogrammes and so by pouring water on the maize after harvesting and drying it later, when taken to the weighing scale, the maize will weigh more,” he explains.
It is not the loss of a few thousands shillings in manipulated weight that has stakeholders in the ministries of Health, and Agriculture as well as food security experts at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) concerned, but the real threat of deadly aflatoxin poisoning from such high moisture levels.
According to the FAO, aflatoxin contamination can occur when there are high moisture levels during storage and transportation of grain, particularly if not dried to the right moisture levels of about 13 per cent.
Collins Omondi, a researcher at the Egerton University Department of Biochemistry, explains that aflatoxins are highly toxic carcinogens that derive from certain molds, and may cause immune-system suppression, retarded growth, liver disease and even death.
“In maize, for instance, which is a staple, aflatoxins occur on the farm through fungus containing high toxins in the soil, when there is insect damage, poor harvesting practices as well poor storage,” he tells IPS.
He added that in the first three months of grain storage, rural households lose 10 to 20 per cent of grains, and the losses can go up to 50 per cent after six months.
It is within this context that experts such as Omondi are encouraging farmers to embrace the first kit to detect aflatoxin on location before the grains enter the market.
The kit can detect contamination in less than 15 minutes and is easy to use as it is based on the strip test such as those used to detect the HIV virus or glucose in human blood. Mr Cheruiyot, who has been trained on how to use the device, says that “if aflatoxin is present in the sample being tested, one pink line appears on the strip. But if the sample does not have aflatoxin then two pink lines will appear.”
While this technology has been lauded as a step in the right direction towards combating the aflatoxin menace in the East African country – with the most severe aflatoxin poisoning outbreak recorded in 2004, when 317 cases were reported by July of that year with a fatality rate of about 39 per cent – very low levels of awareness persist on aflatoxin and its prevention.
The FAO recently held training workshops in collaboration with the national and county governments of Nandi, Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia on prevention of aflatoxins. This was done through the Ministry of Health .