Presented by Juliet Akello (IITA) at the Africa RISING Eastern Province of Zambia Project Review and End-of-Project Meeting, Lusaka, Zambia, 7–8 September 2017

1. Juliet Akello
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
Africa RISING going to scale in the Eastern Province of Zambia Project
Review and End-of-Project Meeting
Lusaka, Zambia, 7 – 8 September 2017
Commercializing Aflasafe as a biocontrol for aflatoxins in Zambia:
implementation progress and achievements

2. FTF initiative: 2011-2015
• Aflatoxin surveillance & capacity building
• Awareness creation
• Aflasafe product development
• Aflasafe efficacy in region II
• Aflasafe registration
• Business plan development

3. Africa RISING - key activities
• Assessing Aflasafe efficacy in Region I & III AEZ
• Conduct Aflasafe profitability assessment
• Development of a business plan
• Identify requirements & Prepare a dossier for
Aflasafe registration & commercialization

4. Accomplishments
• Aflasafe efficacy &
profitability
o 6 tons of Aflasafe
imported from
Nigeria/ TZ
o 228 (34/44 Gnut +
73/77 maize fields)
o 276 (108, YR1 & 169
YR2) groundnut
farms- Share Africa
Zambia

5. Accomplishments: Aflasafe efficacy
99% GN 80% M 99% GN 97% M 95% GN 75% M

6. AEZ Year District # of treated fields
II 2015/2016 Chipata 108
2016/2017 Chipata 139
Lundazi 30
Total 277

7. Aflasafe profitability
< 4 < 10 < 20 > 20
EU COMESA USA UNSAFE
Maximum allowable aflatoxin level (ppb)

8. Aflasafe profitability
< 4 < 10 < 20 > 20
EU COMESA USA UNSAFE
Maximum allowable aflatoxin level (ppb)

9. Aflasafe profitability
Notes Local (Zambia)
(1000 Kg)
COMESA
(1000 Kg)
EU Market
(1000 Kg)
Estimated retail &
export price in Jan
2016 ($)
0.73 1.70 2.00
Gross Revenue from
sales ($)
730 1700 2000
Production costs
(with or without
Aflasafe)
450 509 509
Profit ($) 280 1191 1491
Profit (%) 38 70 75

10. Aflasafe product registration
Technolog Transfer
Agreement prepared
& Signed
2 Dossiers Prepared
ZEMA Engagement
Registration
requirements
identified
Full
registration
Review & Independent
evaluation
Accept
application
Dossier
Re-submission
Provisional
registration

11. Business plan development: Feasibility assessment
• Market & demand
• Market: Local processors, Government school feeding programs, regional
traders, consumers
• 60% of farmers willing to pay for such a product
• Potential Aflasafe manufacture: Share-Africa Zambia & ZAMSEED
• Companies expressed need for seed money to jump start the manufacturing
process
• Potential distribution channels: Current distributer- ZARI
• Seed & input supplies
• NGOs & development partners

12. 4. Awareness raising
Year Female Male
2015/2016 205 162
2016/2017 171 161

13. Challenges
• Aflasafe importation delay
• Marching farm size with Aflasafe dosage
• Lack of awareness about aflatoxins
• Load shedding

14. Lessons & way forward
• Aflasafe needs to be imported & distributed to farmers,
probably at the time of planting.
• Need to develop an effective communication strategy to
continuous farmer & consumer sensitization to increase
awareness about aflatoxin
• There is need to come up with a reliable tool for determining
farm sizes for smallholder farmers if the recommendations
on product usage is to be followed.
• Pursue full registration of Aflasafe

15. Partners

17. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net
This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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