By Edwin Mutai
Up to 124,486 bags of maize held by the State in the Strategic Food Reserve (SFR) are contaminated with aflatoxin at a time when the country is contemplating import of the grain to plug a biting shortfall.
The Ministry of Agriculture has in a report tabled in Parliament revealed that more than half of the contaminated maize is to be destroyed through incineration. The balance is to be used in processing of animal feeds. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), large doses of aflatoxin leads to acute poisoning (aflatoxicosis) that can be life-threatening, usually through damage to the liver.
Long-term or chronic exposure to aflatoxins has several health consequences and may affect all organ systems, especially the liver and kidneys. It can also cause liver cancer.
The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), which stores the strategic food reserves (SFR), early last month said maize worth Sh9.2 billion was at risk of going to waste after the cash-strapped State agency ran out of funds to light storage silos and carry out fumigation. The cash-strapped NCPB said its employees had gone without salaries for two months, paralyzing essential services…Read more>>
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