James Banda and his wife Eliza of Inkosi Mlonyeni in Mchinji have been groundnuts farmers for a good 20 years. They have been cultivating and producing enough groundnuts each year to enable them buy maize for their food requirements, but also send their four children to school. For instance, in the 2015-2016 farming season, James and Eliza allocated two hectares of their three hectares of land to groundnuts, from which they got 80 bags of groundnuts, each weighing 50 kilogrammes.
However, what has been surprising the Banda’s has been the high rejection rate of their groundnuts over the years by the buying companies from Lilongwe. And they seems not to know why.
“At first, they could tell us to re-grade our groundnuts when we take our produce for sale. We could then take a long time to take out whatever bad groundnuts the buyer would identify from our produce until we had the highest quality of groundnuts left. And some of the nuts the buyers ‘force’ us to take out are just good grains, with a little strain of chuku”, explained Banda.
It is this “chuku”, known as aflatoxin in English that has derailed the export market of Malawian (and African in general) groundnuts.
In August 2012, The Guardian published a story on its website that Malawi used to export up to 40, 000 metric tonnes of groundnuts each year – especially to Europe. However, volumes have been going down each year following the introduction of very strict food testing procedures in Europe and the US against levels of aflatoxin.
This has had a knock-on effect on farmers like James Banda in Malawi who have seen their volumes of groundnuts subjected very rigorous grading demands by buyers.
In the US and Europe, arguably the two largest groundnut markets in the world, the acceptable levels of aflatoxin in food crops is 4 parts per billion (4 ppb). And Malawi has struggled to meet this requirement.
In his presentation on the impact of aflatoxin contamination throughout Africa, Isaac Gokah, Trade Policy Analyst in the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, pointed out that Malawi loses about $450 million each year of possible revenue from rejections as a result of aflatoxin contaminations in groundnuts alone.
Joseph Atehnkeng is a plant pathologist with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) at Chitedze Research Station, and he says on average, studies shows that between 30 percent and 40 percent of Malawi’s groundnuts are contaminated by aflatoxins.
With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Feed-the-Future initiative, IITA is promoting the use of aflasafe, a bio-pesticide that helps reduce the production of aflatoxin-producing fungi on crops like maize and groundnuts. The project’s name is Malawi Improved Seed Systems and Technologies (MISST). Results of aflasafe usage in Nigeria show that the product reduces aflatoxin concentration by 79 percent at harvest and 91 percent after storage in fields treated with the biopesticide. Aflasafe is applied in crops like maize and groundnuts during flowering stage by broadcasting by the hand. The MISST project is being implemented in the districts of Mchinji, Lilongwe, Dedza, Ntcheu, Balaka, Machinga, Mangochi, and Blantyre.
Previously, it was mythically believed that aflatoxins developed in crops like maize and groundnuts after harvesting. However, scientific studies show that not only do aflatoxins develop after harvesting – especially during storage – but also while the crop is in the field, particularly during the flowering stage. Studies further show that levels of aflatoxins rise crops like groundnuts in low-lying, hot areas than colder areas.
Speaking during a validation workshop for the development of an Aflatoxin Communication and Awareness Strategy being championed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Atehnkeng said the aflatoxin concentration levels in Malawian crops such as groundnuts. “Most studies show that between 30 percent and 40 percent of groundnuts produced in Malawi are contaminated by aflatoxins. And the situation is not very different for other crops such as maize,” explains Atehnkeng.
The Communication and Awareness Strategy has been developed as one way of responding to challenges being faced by farmers like James Banda. The strategy is being developed under the banner of the Malawi Programme for Aflatoxin Control (MAPAC) in the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The strategy will help organisations like IITA work with media organisations in sensitising Malawian farmers about the dangers of aflatoxins, and especially ways of dealing with aflatoxins.
A study done by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) between 2008-2009 showed that an average of 65 percent of Malawians showed some awareness in the existence of aflatoxins – albeit with varying degrees and myths and misconceptions. Among other myths, the study found that some people thought aflatoxins cause such diseases as Goitre, Breast cancer, High birth rate, and Tuberculosis.
Worse still, others indicated that they were not aware of any dangers associated with aflatoxins because “nothing happens when you eat the bad nuts”. It such people who will be the prime target of the this communication and awareness strategy. The pulsing survey also established that aflatoxins are known by several names locally like Chuku, Nkhungu, Thuku, Nkhufi, Chiphe, and Chigugumira in the Yao-speaking belt of Balaka-Machinga-Mangochi.
Executive Director of the Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) John Kapito, who has been actively involved in the development of the strategy, bemoaned the tendency by most Malawian consumers not to demand for products which are safe for their health.
“The attitude by Malawian consumers is baffling sometimes. There are some products on the market which Cama, working together with the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) has described as not fit for human consumption. However, such unsafe products keep finding their way on shelves of various supermarkets in the country, and consumers keep using them”, bemoaned Kapito.
“And because you cannot see the aflatoxins with the naked eye in groundnut products like peanut butter, it becomes even more difficult for the consumers to identify which product might have aflatoxins, and which ones do not. That is why we welcome the development of this vital strategy which should help raise awareness of dangers of consuming unsafe foods such as those with high levels of aflatoxin contamination,” explained Kapito.
There have been reported deaths after consuming high levels of aflatoxins – a situation referred to as aflatoxicosis. In Kenya for example, about 125 people died in 2004 after eating maize with very high levels of aflatoxins. A total of 317 people at that time suffered various illnesses as a result of the aflatoxicosis. Aflatoxicosis in humans is characterized by vomiting, abdominal pain, pulmonary edema, convulsions, coma, and death with cerebral edema and fatty involvement of the liver, kidneys, and heart. It is such deaths that worry activists like John Kapito.
“The beauty with this strategy is that it has a wide scope in that it aims at reaching all the levels of the food processing ladder starting from the farmer, the middleman who buys produce from farmers, processors, regulating agencies like MBS, and most importantly, consumers themselves”, Kapito said.
And the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda says interventions aimed at reducing aflatoxin contamination levels in crops like maize and groundnuts can improve food safety and security for millions of Malawians.
Speaking during a stakeholders consultative meeting at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe for the registration of aflasafe, Chaponda said government of Malawi will keenly follow the progress on the process of registering aflasafe to deal with the challenge of aflatoxins.
“As government, we are aware that dietary exposure to aflatoxin contaminated maize-based products has been associated with various human health-related conditions including the high incidence of liver cancer, growth retardation in children, reproduction impairment and the suppression of cell-mediated immune responses. It for this reason that we commend IITA and all the other stakeholders in coming up with this intervention which will go a long way in minimizing the problems of aflatoxins in maize, groundnuts, and other crops,” said Chaponda.
The minister also asked the organisations working on the use of aflasafe led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to ensure that once registered, they should make sure that most Malawians understand and appreciate the need for safety and quality of food crops. The other organisations working on the promotion of the use of aflasafe in Malawi include the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Services (USDA- ARS). With funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), IITA is working on a project about the use of aflasafe in reducing aflatoxin contamination in crops.
It only after products like aflasafe can be consistently used by farmers like James Banda of Mchinji that the negative trends which Malawi’s agriculture sector is facing could be kept in check. Otherwise, the strictest measures in place in the developed world to check and control the importation of aflatoxin infested food crops from countries like Malawi are here to stay.
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