ECOWAS, RMRDC, Associations identify mycotoxin as threat to food security

group picture at the mycotoxin event

Intensified effort to checkmate mycotoxin impact on food security in the face of increasing population in the country gathered momentum as Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), management of Raw Material Research Development Council (RMRDC) and experts private sector who converged at Abuja last month came out with a stance that more sensitization to curbing the negative effects of this fungus disease on crops be put in place in order to achieve the year 2050 seventy percent ( 70%) food increase production as predicted by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of United Nations. 

These stakeholders puzzled on the negative impacts of this fungi disease as they identified mycotoxin as very harmful to crops thereby emphasized on the need for more protection of crops for the purpose of ensuring acceptable consumable standard for health advantages for human beings thereby advocating for more awareness creation to all stakeholders at the value chains of agricultural production.

 Dr. HD Ibrahim the Director General Raw Material Research Development Council (RMRDC) said that mycotoxin should not to be taken with levity in the face of growing population and standard saying “right from the field to the stomach we have mycotoxin, we eat mycotoxin infected food unknowingly and we must join hands together in combating mycotoxin for our crops protection".

The DG, RMRDC who was represented by Director of Industrial Chemistry Dr. Moses Omojola pointed that the issue of mycotoxin must be a priority in terms being curbed to a barest minimum as this fungi disease unknowingly infected our edible foods thereby urged stakeholders to join hands together in combating mycotoxin.

The Representative of the ECOWAS Mr. Aubee Ernerst Reuben of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that his commission is very passionate on the effect of mycotoxin on food security as it is health related to human beings adding that ECOWAS had already swung into action by ensuring a mechanism of agencies partnership that will checkmate fungi infection towards meeting EU commodity standard. 

 In the same vein, the President, Mycotoxin Society of Nigeria (MSN) and a RMRDC Deputy Director, Dr. Anthony Negedu also threw his weight behind others speakers saying mycotoxins are harmful toxic to health of human beings and pose a serious constraint to crops acceptability as regards standard thereby advocating for farmers’ sensitization towards ensuring healthy food production in Nigeria.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that by 2050 global food production needs to be increased by 70% stressed that production must consider standard with consideration to health and environment. “There is a growing demand for safe, nutritious, ready, convenient foods and friendly food packaging. Consequently, innovative agriculture that makes the best use of available resources, maximizing quality and minimizing waste will become critical to meeting the challenging demand”.

In view of the above challenges faced by the Nigeria produce and commodities in the EU market, the International Society for Horticulture Science (ISHS) and Raw Material Research Development Council (RMRDC) in collaboration with relevant stakeholders has recently held the 2^nd International Symposium on Mycotoxins in Nuts, Dried fruits and Cereals as experts converged with a strong communique of proactive measure to checkmate the disease. 

The farmers’ representative under the umbrella All Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Prince Ike Ubaka noted that mycotoxin has been the greatest challenge to farmers and consumers, and if not seriously considered for eradication, mycotoxin might deter our produce from completing with other produce at the international market urging the Federal Government and stakeholders to help sensitized more farmers and stakeholders to come together to wage war against it. He further stressed that standard should be set for our produce in order to stop trade conspirators.

A mycotoxin expert, Elisa Assays pointed that these fungi can survive under certain humidity and temperate conditions during storage stressing that exposure to these toxins may cause cancer, weaken immune systems, allergies, and death. 

She further said that most fungi are aerobic and are found almost everywhere in extremely small quantities. Even temperature treatments, such as cooking and freezing, do not destroy all mycotoxins. Due to their prevalence and resilience, testing for mycotoxins is important to ensure the safety of food products. In most countries there are requirements for mycotoxin testing as a public health measure to protect the population.

The communiqué issued at the end of the international symposium on groundnut, dry fruits and cereals submitted the following as recommendations.

1. Development partners, other initiatives and national Governments should be encouraged to emphasize capacity building, awareness creation, advocacy and strategic communications in their countries;
2. There is need for the establishment of modern facilities and upgrade of existing laboratories for mycotoxins analysis, management and control for national and regional uses.
3. There is need to harmonize legislations and mandates of relevant organizations for proper implementation, as well as mainstream mycotoxin mitigation into the national food safety policy.
4. Research should be strengthened towards the development and use of resistant crop varieties against mycotoxigenic fungi;
5. Governments should be encouraged to have national research focus on mycotoxins with more emphasis on human exposure assessment, standardization of detection methods, creation of relevant research-industry linkages and the establishment of reference laboratories for certification of imported and exported products;
6. All relevant stakeholders including health practitioners, legislators, policy makers, should be encouraged to actively participate in mycotoxins risk assessment, management and control;
7. There is need for adequate compartmentalization of agricultural produce for ease of traceability and safety;
8. Domestication of readily available and affordable technology for detecting mycotoxins contamination should be prioritized;
9. Stakeholders should be enlightened on GAP, GMP, and other best practices on continuous and sustainable basis in the entire value chain actors of food, feeds, and herbal drugs;
10. There is need for the establishment of national and regional Mycological Culture Collection, and Mycotoxins Research Centres;
11. The custodian of standards in developing countries should be strengthened to set in motion the process of legislation on mycotoxins and other contaminants;
12. There is need to strengthen institutional capacity for research in biodiversity hotspot delineation of mycotoxigenic fungi across developing countries;
13. The symposium recommends the need to diversify the use of contaminated grains or produce for other industrial uses such as industrial ethanol, etc,
14. There is the need to “go-green” and upscale the total use of crops with the use of wastes as organic fertilizers.