Agriculture Institute Introduces Natural Product to Safeguard Food for Africans

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has introduced and made available a natural product that protects crops in farmers’ fields from toxic compounds, such as aflatoxin, to farmers in Nigeria.

An initiative of the African Union (AU), the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA), disclosed that the product, called Aflasafe, a bioprotectant, is effective (with 80 to 100% effectiveness) against pre-harvest crop contamination with aflatoxins, which are highly toxic carcinogenic compounds that can cause liver cancer and other health maladies.

PACA stated: “It is estimated that aflatoxins cause between 5% and 30% of all liver cancer in the world, with the highest incidence of 40% occurring in Africa. In countries with high hepatitis B viremia, liver cancer risks increase with dietary exposure to aflatoxins.”

A statement released by the IITA says Aflasafe helps enable the production of safe crops and reduces the risks of liver cancer caused by the consumption of aflatoxins in foods, noting that Aflasafe is neither food for direct human consumption nor a poisonous chemical, but a beneficial plant bioprotectant and a non-chemical agricultural product developed against aflatoxins, one of the most dangerous compounds on earth.

The statement explains that Aflasafe was developed by the IITA and several national and international partners, and registered by IITA after conducting rigorous tests as per the guidance of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), disclosing that the product safety assessments demonstrated that Aflasafe passed safety requirements for toxicity and ecological safety.

Dr Abdullahi Ndarubu of Harvestfield Industries Limited (HIL), a Nigerian company that manufactures and distributes Aflasafe, said: “Aflasafe has been included in the Central Bank of Nigeria-Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (CBN-ABP)’s list of inputs for farmers’ use.

“Programmes of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) have also encouraged the use of Aflasafe to produce safe and nutritious maize and groundnut for domestic and international markets,” Ndarubu noted.

The statement says Aflasafe, which comprises naturally occurring strains of the fungus Aspergillus flavus native to Nigeria that have been identified as lacking the ability to produce aflatoxins, had been used by farmers in several hundred thousand hectares in several states in Nigeria, including Niger, for nearly 10 years without any untoward effect.

It reveals that Aflasafe appears as blue-coloured sorghum because it is coloured with a food-grade dye, after application of nature-based active ingredients, to differentiate it from regular food, and during pre-harvest application, Aflasafe strains could displace other highly toxigenic naturally occurring aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus.

IITA said the intended and approved use of Aflasafe is not as food, but as a bioprotectant for use in the field on growing crops to control aflatoxins, explaining that the product is recommended for application at the rate of 10kg per hectare by broadcast at about 30-40 days after planting the crop (e.g., maize, groundnut).

Apart from the blue food colorant, minute quantities of a maize-starch based polymer, and the active ingredient fungi (0.002 g of fungi per kg), there are no chemicals in the Aflasafe formulation but it contains safe natural microbes to control the dangerous aflatoxins found in food.

IITA Associate Scientist/Food Safety Scientist, Dr Titilayo Falade, said: “Many organisations in Nigeria, such as federal and state government organisations, including but not limited to FMARD, state ADPs, notable quality-sensitive organisations, crop production groups and companies, national and international stakeholders, in collaboration with farmers nationwide, promote the use of Aflasafe because of the benefits that it brings.”

Aflasafe is currently used in Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, The Gambia, and Mali as well as in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia, with several other African countries including Cameroon, Niger, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Burundi, at various levels of developing their country specific strains.