The war on aflatoxins in East Africa is intensifying as member-states of the East African Community (EAC) strategise through regular consultative meetings on how best to surmount the malady in the region.
Aflatoxins are a family of toxins produced by certain fungi which include – but are by no means limited to – ‘Aspergillus flavus’ and ‘Aspergillus parasiticus,’ that are abundant in warm and humid regions across the world. The highly-carcinogenic toxins are mostly found on agricultural crops such as maize, as well as cottonseeds, peanuts, cashew nuts, walnuts, pine nuts, coconuts, almonds, etc.
What with maize being a staple food in the region – and nuts being popular ingestibles for all age groups – aflatoxins are a huge threat to humanity. Hence the concerns and dire need to wipe out aflatoxins in our
region and the African continent as a whole.
The latest such consultative meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya, last week stressed the importance of putting in place more comprehensive, strategic policy and regulatory frameworks designed to effectively eliminate the aflatoxin menace.
For starters, enactment of the stalled EAC Aflatoxin Bill is considered essential in establishing a legal framework that’s functionally supportive of the war on aflatoxins.
To that end, the EAC Secretariat has submitted the Bill and pertinent proposals to the US Agency for International Development (USAid), seeking $200,000 with which to fast-track enactment of the Bill, and
draw up a comprehensive programme for effectively tackling aflatoxins in the region. As we noted in these pages on May 12, 2019, Tanzania has demonstrated that the use of ‘Aflasafe’ – ‘a biological control product
against aflatoxin’ – tames aflatoxins by 85 percent. If the EAC Aflatoxin Bill is adopted, it’d enable the EAC countries to streamline activities to surmount aflatoxins together – thereby effectively curbing the twin-menaces of food insecurity and cancer from aflatoxins. Team spirit involving all the EAC nations in this is the way forward.
