A Risky Menace for our Food Commodities
In 2018, about 2.5 million 90 kg bags of maize under the strategic food reserve that cost the taxpayer Ksh 8.7 billion would go to waste and be eventually destroyed unless the national cereals and produce board gets an immediate buyer to convert the produce into maize flour. The national cereals and produce board acting managing director, Albin Sang told the senate ad hoc committee investigating the maize crisis in the country that the maize was yellowing due to poor storage. An internal audit by the ministry of agriculture that was tabled in parliament in June showed almost 60 percent of the 3.6 million 90 kg bags of maize that was bought by the board between October 2017 and March 2018 had aflatoxin.
In 2017, the cereals board bought maize from farmers at Sh3,200 for a 90kg bag and Sh2,300 in 2018. The NCPB managing director Joseph Kimote said 124,625 50kg bags of maize were destroyed. The National Cereals and Produce Board has between January and August destroyed over 120,000 bags of maize that was contaminated with aflatoxin. The maize could have earned the NCPB an estimated Sh190 million if it was of good quality.
In 2017, the cereal board bought maize from farmers at Sh3,200 for a 90kg bag and Sh2,300 in 2018.
NCPB managing director Joseph Kimote said 124,625 50kg bags of maize were destroyed under the supervision of the Department of Public Health and the Interior ministry between January to August.
He spoke on Wednesday during a consultation at the NCPB headquarters on the roadmap to promoting the use of Aflasafe by farmers to combat aflatoxin contamination in maize.
“This is maize that had been stored at various NCPB stores across the country between 2017 and 2018. Destroying the contaminated maize needs a lot of planning and logistics and that is why it has taken us a lot of time, thus taking up a lot of storage space which we could have utilised,” he said.
Aflatoxins are a family of toxins produced by certain fungi that are found on agricultural crops such as maize (corn), peanuts, cottonseed, and tree nuts. The main fungi that produce aflatoxins are Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, which are abundant in warm and humid regions of the world. Aflatoxin-producing fungi can contaminate crops in the field, at harvest, and during storage.
In Rwanda significant percentage of maize production is rejected by agro-processing factories due to poor quality caused by a high level of humidity due to poor post-harvest handling stage, Business Times has learnt.
The main problem preventing maize farmers from accessing stable markets include “aflatoxins”, which are poisonous substances regularly found in improperly stored staple commodities such as maize, rice, sorghum, millet, wheat, cassava and others.
Aimable Nindenkayo, the officer in charge of Quality Assurance at Africa Improved Foods, said that the factory rejected 90 percent of supplied maize produce in 2017 Agricultural Season B because of the poor quality.
“We reject such poor quality maize so as to avoid losses. We preferred to support farmers and train them on how to fight aflatoxin. In the following stage, the percentage of rejected maize reduced from 90 percent to less than 43 percent after sending agents on the field to handle the problem,” he said.
Due to lack of needed quality, he said, the factory resorted to importing maize, especially from Zambia, Uganda, and Tanzania.
To enhance food security, GS1 has developed standards to help monitor and mitigate against post-harvest losses
These standards can be used to map all farms across the region to assist in monitoring and reporting critical information
The warehouses can be equipped with smart devices to be able to communicate relevant information to monitor the environmental conditions to minimize wastes.
The automation of the warehouse management processes will also increase efficiencies as well as traceability of the produces.