1. Research Theme 4: Food storage, value addition and mycotoxin management Research Progress from September 2014 to June 2015 Presented to ESA Planning Meeting Malawi, July 2015 By Research Team 4

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

9. Assessment of nutritional status of pregnant women in Babati Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) Assessment of nutritional status of farm households in maize-based farming system (children and the other vulnerable groups)

10. Nutritional status of lactating mothers in Babati Body mass index (BMI)

11. Nutritional status of the elderly in Babati Body mass index (BMI)

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

13. Integration with Research theme 1: samples collected for mycotoxin analysis Samples collected from Research theme 1 VillageNumber of samples Fertilizer trial Maize variety trial Seloto2436 Sabilo129 Hallu1210 Total4855 Grand total103 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 VillageSample typeQuantity Matufa Lablab2 Maize bran3 Blood meal1 Sorghum4 Pigeon pea2 Maize2 Sunflower cake1 Soybean1 Broken rice1 Rice bran1 Moringa leaf meal1 Leucaena leaf meal1 Total20 Sabilo Sunflower cake2 Sorghum2 Pigeon pea2 Total6 VillageSample typeQuantity Seloto Sunflower cake3 Maize3 Maize bran1 Pigeon pea1 Sorghum1 Soybean1 Total10 Hallu Maize bran2 Sunflower cake2 Sorghum2 Total6 Babati town Blood meal1 Fish meal2 Total3 Grand total45 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 Total Aflatoxins 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 *All means of aflasafe and control pairs significantly different; Student’s t-test (P<0.05) 8294838682938990Less (%) 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).

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