Group Picture at the Country-Led Situation Analysis and Action Planning Validation and Stakeholder Workshop on Aflatoxin, held in Abuja |
As an effort to ensuring food security across the country,
experts in the agricultural sector have jointly declared war on
"Aflatoxin", a silent killer and a threat to food security just as
they have agreed to create awareness on dangers posed by the fungus to human
and animal health and food production.
The position was declared during the
Country-Led Situation Analysis and Action Planning Validation and Stakeholder
Workshop, organized by the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA)
in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
(FMARD) supported by the African Union
(AU) which held in Abuja.
The Technical Adviser, PACA-AU Prof. Martins Epafras
Kimanya, during an interview disclosed that the effect of aflatoxin on
international trade, health and food security had called for the urgent
mitigation of the problem in Nigeria.
He said that due to the necessity of the need to secure our
food system in the country, the PACA picked Nigeria late alongside Gambia,
Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda, as part of its five pilot countries in
controlling the effect on food consumed by humans and animals, as it has
elaborated a ten-year strategy (2013-2022).
Prof. Kimanya added that aflatoxin is a silent killer and in
that note the African Union (AU),the Government of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, PACA and ECOWAS, agreed to establish the African Information
Management System (AfricaAIMS) among others, to mitigate the aflatoxin problem
in Nigeria.
He stressed that aflatoxin control would also be
mainstreamed through PACA initiative in Comprehensive African Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP) and National Agriculture and Food Security
Investment Plans (NAFSIPs).
The PACA technical officer urged
Nigerians to champion the cause of aflatoxin mitigation in order to create
policies and an enabling environment that would allow evidence-based action
plans to be implemented by various stakeholders, saying that aflatoxin
contamination was the most pervasive food safety challenge in Africa and
therefore required a concerted, coordinated and holistic approach to have a
meaningful and sustained impact on mitigating the problem.
Prof. Kimanya said “Aflatoxins are
natural compounds produced by the mould Aspergillus
flavus and related species. They are highly toxic to humans and animals,
causing liver disease and cancer. Chronic exposure to aflatoxins is also
associated with stunting and immune system suppression. Aflatoxin-producing
moulds affect grain and other food crops notably, maize and groundnuts. The
toxin can be carried over along the food chain and contaminate animal source
foods. Humans and animals get exposed to aflatoxins through ingestion of
foods/feeds contaminated by the toxins’’
The Director, Cereals and Agric
Development, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Mr.
Opara George Obinna said that the role played by PACA is strategic and
important to the country’s food security adding that if we want to diversify
our economy our food system has to be safe for human and animal consumption.
He noted that we are all sitting on
aflatoxin, and it had eaten into our value chain crops especially the
exportable ones which has resulted to many not meeting market standard based on
fungus infection, stressed it was mandatory and urgent that we think of more
possible solutions to control the effects of the fungus on our food production.
He stressed that the Federal Government
through the FMARD was dedicated to enforcing stringent regulations that would
mitigate the effect posed across the country, starting from planting, to
harvesting and storage.
Prof Olusegun Atanda, Fellow Trustee
and past President of the Mycotoxicology Society of Nigeria said that there was
a great need to start combating aflatoxin situation in the country, saying high
postharvest losses were attributed to farmers’ produce being susceptible to
fungus growth thereby leading to aflatoxin
He said that more regulations should be
made to control aflatoxin in the country, with massive awareness of the farmers
on the effects of the fungus to their produce urging that it was necessary to
mainstream aflatoxin issues through enforcement by the national food safety
bill cum national mitigation strategy and investment program with fund support.
Other participants also pleaded that
the proposed action plan be further reviewed to enforce a purpose-driven
project.
A panelist and discussant from the Food
and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Mr. Ahmed Matane
said that 90% of our extension workers were not aware aflatoxin negative
impact, and this has deterred farmers’ sensitization, adding that the food
safety standard of the country needed to be upgraded to avert major health
problems posed by the silent killer through effective act.
A deputy director, Grains Reserve, Mr.
Nuhu Kilishi said it was not necessary to spend a huge fund on the control and
detection of this menace without a major sensitization of its effect, adding
prevention is better than cure.
The desk officer, maize value chain
FMARD Dr. Muftau Adeleke also advised the country to take necessary step on the
collection of the rejected crops, so as to avert illegal sales by farmers or
consumption by the livestock which could also endanger human and animal health.
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