Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) Director of Food Safety, Raymond Wigenge
VARIOUS stakeholders from across the African continent are meeting in Dar es Salaam to step up efforts in the fight against aflatoxin contamination in the maize value chain.
The two-day regional workshop, organised
by the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) in
collaboration with its partners, seeks to address the growing occurrence
of aflatoxins in maize which affect food security, international trade
of maize and health of people in African countries.
Speaking during a media briefing on the
sidelines of the workshop, Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA)
Director of Food Safety, Raymond Wigenge said it was estimated that 208
million people in Africa depend on maize as a source of food and
economic wellbeing.
“Maize is one of the crops most
susceptible to aflatoxin contamination that is yet to receive attention
by policy makers in Africa,’’ he said.
It is estimated that African countries
collectively record 670 million US dollars loss annually in export due
to aflatoxin contamination, with 30 per cent of liver cancer cases in
Africa blamed on aflatoxin contaminated food.
Themed ‘Unleashing the full potential of
the Maize Value Chain,’ the forum has brought together experts,
including farming organisations, researchers, agriculturalists, traders,
nutritionists, policy makers and health experts to discuss and
deliberate on implementable solutions to the growing aflatoxin menace on
the continent.
According to PACA Programme Manager, Dr
Amare Ayalew, there was no any single option to deal with aflatoxin in
Africa, adding that awareness raising as well as creating incentives for
aflatoxin control interventions were important.
He called for collaboration by all
stakeholders towards a single solution for aflatoxin control. The
opening session of the workshop, which ends today, was graced by the
Minister for Agriculture, Dr Charles Tizeba.
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