Presented by George Mahuku (IITA) at the Africa RISING East and Southern Africa Review and Planning Meeting, Malawi, 14-16 July 2015

1. Africa RISING East and Southern Africa Review and Planning Meeting,
Malawi, 14-16 July 2015
George Mahuku
IITA
Food storage, value addition and mycotoxin management:
Research progress from September 2014 to June 2015

2. Team Members
Research theme 4
• Storage and Nutrition
o Adebayo Abass and team
• Mycotoxins
o George Mahuku and team
Integrated with:
• Research theme 1: Fertilizer and maize variety trials
o Job Kihara and Team
• Research theme 8: Poultry feed formulations
o Ben Lukuyu and Team

3. Importance of food storage and
mycotoxin management
• To minimize:
o Quantitative losses (food security: accessibility, affordability)
o Qualitative losses (nutritive value and safety of food)
o Financial losses and safeguard trade - especially international
trade
• So that the harvested food reaches the consumer to fulfill
satisfaction in terms of quality, quantity and safety
• But due to poor or absence of improved:
o Pre- & post-harvest management technologies , including
storage infrastructure
o Improved processing methods and machinery
o Market facilities
o Awareness

4. Importance of food storage and mycotoxin
management
• Significant post-harvest losses are experienced
(20 – 40% in Africa)
• Health problems from consumption of unsafe
foods – mycotoxins (cancer, child stunting,
immune suppression, blood and nerve defects,
instant death, etc.)
• Rejection of agricultural products with higher
than the regulated limits for mycotoxins (aflatoxin
in Kenya) – loss of market opportunities

5. What are the possible impacts of food
losses and high mycotoxin in foods?
• Insufficient household foods for 365days
• Poor quality of nutrients in household diets
• Unsafe foods
• Malnutrition in children, lactating women
and the elderly.
• Frail or sickly population

6. Post-harvest loss assessment:
characteristics of a maize-based system
Abass et al., 2014

7. What has been done in Babati?
• 120 maize samples at storage (Day 0) collected in August/September 2014
• 180 maize samples at storage (Day 90) collected in November 2014
• 180 maize samples at storage (Day 180) collected in February 2015
• Samples assayed for aflatoxin and fumonisin
• 103 maize samples collected in June 2015 from maize variety and fertilizer
trials conducted by Research Theme 1 to determine influence of maize variety
and fertilizers on mycotoxins. The samples are currently being processed prior
to lab mycotoxin analysis
• Aflatoxin bio-control activities executed in 4 villages (Sabilo, Sangaiwe, Matufa
and Hallu Villages) with 20 farmers per village
• Assessment of post-harvest losses in maize in three storage structures
• Assessment of nutritional status of the diet for the population of maize based
farming system (children and the vulnerable groups)

8. Conducted in Long, Sabilo and Seloto, involving 60 farmers
and 5 tons of maize
Assessment of post-harvest losses in maize
Percentage
loss of
maize
stored for 8
months
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
Polypropylenebag
storedoutsidethe
homestead
Polypropylenebag
withinsecticides
Polypropylenebag
within-house
storage
Traditionalcribs
Traditionalcrib
withinsecticide
Hermeticstorage
bag
Maize storage practices
Loss(%unmarketablegrains)

9. Assessment of nutritional status of
pregnant women in Babati
Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
At risk of malnutrition (MUAC <
220mm)
Normal (MUAC ≥ 220mm)
8
2226.7
73.3
Number Percent
Assessment of nutritional status of farm
households in maize-based farming system
(children and the other vulnerable groups)

10. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Underweight (BMI <
18.5)
Normal (BMI 18.5 -
24.9)
Overweight (BMI ≥ 25)
7
29
5
17.1
70.7
12.2
Number Percent
Nutritional status of lactating mothers in Babati
Body mass index (BMI)

11. Nutritional status of the elderly in Babati
Body mass index (BMI)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Underweight (BMI <
18.5)
Normal (BMI 18.5 -
24.9)
Overweight (BMI ≥
25)
8
24
6
21.1
63.2
15.8
Number Percent

12. Can adequate food storage lead to better health outcomes?
A storage experiment with farmers from 2013-2014: Assessment
of the nutritional status of children of participating and non-
participating households
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Underweight Stunting Wasting
16.1
41.4
3.3
21.5
56.6
2.5
Percent
Experimental households Non-experimental households

13. Integration with Research theme 1: samples
collected for mycotoxin analysis
Samples collected from Research
theme 1
Village Number of samples
Fertilizer
trial
Maize variety
trial
Seloto 24 36
Sabilo 12 9
Hallu 12 10
Total 48 55
Grand total 103
Fertilizer and variety
treatments
Fertilizer
treatments
0N 40P 60K
45N 40P 60K
90N 40P 60K
120N 40P 60K
150N 40P 60K
120N 0P 60K
120N 15P 60K
120N 30P 60K
Control
Maize
varieties
SEED CO 627
Kenya H513
Pioneer 3253

14. Integration with Research theme 8
Village Sample type Quantity
Matufa
Lablab 2
Maize bran 3
Blood meal 1
Sorghum 4
Pigeon pea 2
Maize 2
Sunflower cake 1
Soybean 1
Broken rice 1
Rice bran 1
Moringa leaf meal 1
Leucaena leaf meal 1
Total 20
Sabilo
Sunflower cake 2
Sorghum 2
Pigeon pea 2
Total 6
Village Sample type Quantity
Seloto
Sunflower cake 3
Maize 3
Maize bran 1
Pigeon pea 1
Sorghum 1
Soybean 1
Total 10
Hallu
Maize bran 2
Sunflower cake 2
Sorghum 2
Total 6
Babati town
Blood meal 1
Fish meal 2
Total 3
Grand total 45
Samples
collected for
mycotoxin
analysis

15. • Use of Aspergillus flavus strains that do not produce
toxins
• Naturally outcompete the toxic producing strains,
reducing their population and hence aflatoxin
Villages selected in Babati:
• Sabilo
• Sangaiwe
• Matufa
• Hallu
Interventions/Scaling-up
Aflatoxin bio-control

16. Broadcast
@ 10 kg/ha 2-3 weeks
before flowering
Spores
Insects
Biocontrol in 5 kg boxes
3-20
days
Wind
Soil
colonization
30-33 grains m-2
Fungal network
in killed grain
Sporulation on
moist soil
How does the bio-control works?

17. Interventions/Scaling-up
Validation of potential aflatoxin bio-control product
• Efficacy tests of the Tanzanian atoxigenic A. flavus were
conducted in the 4 villages (Hallu, Sabilo, Sangaiwe and Seloto)
• 5 sites per village to give total of 20 sites
• 2 biocontrol products, consisting of 8 atoxigenic A. flavus
strains (4 strains in each group) tested
• 30 samples collected from 3 villages (June 2015)
• Samples currently being assayed for aflatoxin level
• Microbial analysis (A. flavus, toxigenic and atoxigenic strain
analysis being done on 30 soil samples from successful trials

18. Percent of Fields
TotalAflatoxins
Percent of Fields
Biological control of aflatoxin in Kenya – efficacy
test experiments
Hola irrigation scheme – costal
Kenya (2012)
Makueni - Farmer Field Trials
(2012)

19. Nigeria: Efficacy on Maize
372
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2009 2010 2011 2012
Aflasafe™
Control
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2009 2010 2011 2012
*All means of aflasafe and control pairs significantly different; Student’s t-test (P<0.05)
82 94 83 86 82 93 89 90Less (%)
At Harvest After Storage

20. Interventions/Scaling-up
Warehousing
• Large-scale storage of maize to up-scale the improved hermetic
bag storage structure initiated in three villages
o Long storage to wait for better price (price monitoring)
o Reduce losses due to storage pests (quarterly sampling)
o Reduce risks for contamination with mycotoxins (quarterly
sampling)
Maize threshing machine
• Saves time (500kg per hour) compared to traditional methods
• Reduces labour input by women, fewer people
• Reduces waiting time for threshing (in the open), hence reduces
chances for mycotoxin contamination
(Scaling expert required to design further experiments)

21. Interventions/Scaling-up
Product development: Introducing high protein-
content recipe using locally available materials –
common bean: Long Seloto and Sabilo
• Creation of awareness of nutrition problem (stunting,
wasting, lack of protein in diets, etc)
• New highly nutritious foods developed (6); lab analysis
of new foods for nutrient density
• Support the establishment of pilot processing &
innovation platform centers
• Sensory evaluation and community-based nutrition
training

22. Awareness creation
Awareness creation to selected farmers
during site selection
Atoxigenic strain imobilized on
sorghum sporulates
A farmer applying biocontrol product
Farmers with biocontrol product

23. At least four manuscripts will be prepared for
publication in international peer reviewed journals
in 2015/2016 as one of the deliverables for this
project (Research Theme 4).

24. THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING