Groundnut Varieties Improvement for Yield and Adaptation,
Human Health, and Nutrition
Pre- and post-harvest aflatoxin mitigation in
groundnuts
3-4 December 2012
McKnight CCRP Groundnut Breeding and Afaltoxin Project
DRD-Naliendele Agricultural Research Institute
P.O. Box 509
Mtwara, Tanzania. E-Mail mpondaomari@hotmail.com
Project Team members and
locations
ICRISAT
NASFAM-Malawi
KCH Malawi
E S Monyo –
Breeder/Principal
Investigator
B
Chinyamunyamu
– Principal
Collaborator
Economics
F Madinda – Now O Mponda –
Lutheran Hosp.
Principal
Arusha
Collaborator
Breeding
M Siambi –
Collaborator
Agronomy
C Nakhumwa –
Collaborator
Economics
I Mwakasungula
E Kafiriti –
Collaborator
Agronomy
S.Anitha Aflatoxin
Diagnostics
S Phiri
Project Technician
T Chilunjika
M Sijaona –
Collaborator
Pathology
Wills Munthali
Project Officer
Breeding
DRD-Tanzania
DANISH
MANAGEMEN
T
Nick Nathaniels
–
Communication
specialist
Project Locations: Tanzania & Malawi
Crop Systems Challenges/Opportunities being
Addressed

Low agricultural
productivity and food
insecurity.



Poor soil fertility,
unreliable rainfall and
diseases are major
factors limiting crop
productivity.
Malnutrition particularly
in Children: lack of
protein, oil and vitamins
in a largely cereal-based
diet
Poverty >half of the
population
Challenges in the Project Area
• Small farm holdings 0.5 – 1.0ha
• Lack of farm machinery (only hand tools)
• Fungal foliar and Plant viral Diseases
• Aflatoxin contamination
Research Hypothesis
• Improved groundnut varieties (for yield,
disease and aflatoxin resistance) will stimulate
farmer adoption and increase production
enabling smallholder farmers to overcome
– Malnutrition
– Health related ailments
– Increased rural poverty
– Loss of soil fertility
Major Achievements: 9 Varieties
released to date
IN 2012 NEW GROUNDNUT VARIETIES IDENTIFIED FOR RELEASE
IN TANZANIA
Participatory variety selection
Rural seed fairs
Afaltoxin contamination – trade and
health effects
• Aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2), the poisonous secondary
metabolites produced by Aspergillus flavus and A.
parasiticus, are one of the most frequent
contaminants in several crops produced under
rainfed conditions such as groundnut, maize, millets,
chillies, various nuts, etc.
Aflatoxins
 Toxic metabolites produced by
Aspergillus flavus and related
species in several crop species
 Aflatoxin B1 is a potent toxin
 It is considered as carcinogen
Aspergillus flavus: Aflatoxin
producing mold
Aflatoxin B1
Economic Impact
• FAO estimates 25% of world food crops affected by mycotoxins –
aflatoxin being the most notorious
• Aflatoxin causes losses to livestock and poultry producers due to
reduced growth rates, low yields, feed efficiency losses
• Aflatoxin is a Barrier to trade
• Regulatory programs are costly
Countries with Permissible Limits for Total Aflatoxins in
Food & Feed
Top 20 Groundnut Exporters, 2008
Rank
Country
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
India
China
USA
Argentina
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Brazil
UAE
South Africa
Vietnam
Paraguay
Belgium
Gambia
Singapore
Australia
Bolivia
UR of Tanzania
Egypt
Spain
Uzbekistan
Quantity
Value (1,000
Unit value
(tonnes)
US$)
(US$/tonne)
293,128
274,154
935
167,054
232,183
1,390
216,936
198,593
915
148,962
180,890
1,214
80,287
137,390
1,711
77,973
90,058
1,155
44,361
50,586
1,140
15,938
15,799
991
10,202
15,027
1,473
14,300
13,700
958
9,230
9,778
1,059
6,282
9,395
1,496
18,000
8,200
456
6,093
7,336
1,204
3,984
7,254
1,821
4,056
6,658
1,642
14,817
6,280
424
5,684
6,138
1,047
3,275
5,874
1,794
6,461
5,545
858
Source:
FAOSTAT
Groundnuts Production-Tanzania
Cropped
Production Av.
Area (2008- (2008-10
Yield (2008- Potential
10 avg)
avg)
10 avg) (A) yield (B)
million
million ha tonnes
Kg/Ha
Kg/Ha
0.54
0.39 721.38
3,000
Realizable
Yield (C)
Yield Gap
(C-A)
Kg/Ha
Kg/Ha
1500 778.62
Major Groundnuts production and exporting countries 20012007 (000’ MT )
Rank
Country
Production
Country
Export
1
China
13,936
China
700
2
India
6,870
Argentina
273
3
Nigeria
3,281
USA
192
4
USA
1,822
India
188
5
Indonesia
1,382
Netherlands
117
6
Myanmar
891
Viet Nam
63
7
Sudan
782
Nicaragua
55
8
Senegal
527
Brazil
31
9
Viet Nam
443
South Africa
26
10
Ghana
427
The Gambia
19
World Total
35,828
World total
1,894
Groundnut Aflatoxin component
Specific Objectives
– ensure that the general public is knowledgeable about
aflatoxin and its effects on health
• Disseminate available aflatoxin reducing technologies
• Building capacity of front line staff and farmers through farmer
friendly integrated aflatoxin management packages
Factors Favorizing
Aflatoxin Production
•
•
Interactions among fungus, the
host & the environment –
Pre-harvest
• Presence of A. Flavus in
the soil
• insect damage
• Water stress, high
temp, prolonged
drought,
• Specific crop growth
stages, soil fertility, high
crop densities, weed
competition
Post-harvest.
Warm Temperature
High humidityrewetting
Poor storage
conditions
Harvesting overly
mature crop
Mechanical damage
Relationships between Grain contamination and Soil fungus
Fitted probabilities of
contamination >4ppb
as influenced by soil
fungi (log (cfu)) reveal
Clear relationship
between grain
contamination and
A.flavus in the soil. (as
cfu increase beyond
3000 (log(cfu)>8).
Relationships between Farmer exposure to groundnut production
and grain aflatoxin contamination
Fitted probabilities of
contamination >4ppb
as influenced by
exposure to
groundnut farming
(years)
Reveal that both less
experienced and older
farmers are more
likely to produce
groundnuts
contaminated with
aflatoxin.
Relationship between district mean growing temp and Aflatoxin
contamination
Plotting the values of
proportion of samples
>20ppb for each
district against district
mean temperature
revealed that
groundnut
contamination is to a
greater extent more
likely in warmer
locations
Groundnut Aflatoxin workshop with traders in Mtwara
WABISOCO, MTWARA 17 June 2011
Moulds in groundnuts
Microscope view of fungi aspergillus flavus-
Aflatoxin contamination levels in groundnuts in
Tanzania (ppb)
Samples
Mean
AfB1
93
85
93
121
68
115
Lifecycle- 1.Aflatoxin contamination starts in
the field
2.How to reduce contamination in the field –
Timely harvesting is important
3. Delayed harvesting may lead to aflatoxin
Contamination
4. Browning of the inner side of the podmaturity
5.How to reduce contamination during harvest
– 10% moisture level (pod ratling)
6.How to reduce contamination during dryingDry on raised platform
7. Jute bags good for groundnut storage
8.Sorting broken kernels and mould nuts may
reduce aflatoxin contamination in groundnuts
Sorting and Grading – reduced aflatoxin
contamination
Joint action needed – by value chain
actors
Policy makers (Ministries of
Agriculture, Health, Industry, Finance,
Trade, PMO, Loc GOvt),TFDA,
Input & service
suppliers (incl
extension, SIDO,
AMCOS; Farmer
groups, PvT
TOSCI,ASA,
NGOs)
Farmers
Research community
NARS, ICRISAT,IITA,
TFNC,TBS
Traders
Exporters
Processors
Supermarkets
Consumers
Adapted from Homann-Kee Tui (2010) Training/Planning Workshop Report on Establishing
Small Stock Innovation Platforms, Gaborone
Field Technology Demonstrations
Aflatoxin
Susceptible
Early
Late
Water
Management
Resistant
Time of Planting
Variety
GRD, Aflatoxin
Box Ridges
Open
Ridges
Affordable Tools for Monitoring
Aflatoxin Contamination
For successful mycotoxin management in food and
feed, simple low-cost monitoring tools are required
ICRISAT has
developed ELISA
based technologies
for the detection of
AFB, AFM1, FMB, OT
etc. in food and feeds.
And detection of
AFB1-Albumin
biomarker from blood
Summary of researcher/communicator engagement with groundnut
stakeholders 2011-12 and recent results highlights
Market
traders
Small scale
processors
Agric Coops
District
Council
Chairmen
District
Agric
Extension
Face-to-face information
meeting, 2011, brings a
new understanding of
mould and aflatoxin 2011
Are encouraging better
practices at the market
through internal meetings on
aflatoxin, and encouraging
their suppliers to do the same.
Will teach others in their
networks
Want to ensure all crops in
go-down are mould free:
have requested training
Have raised aflatoxin issue in
Nanyumbu. and Ward
Development Committee
Meeting
Has sensitised
AEOs and will
contintue training
of farmers and Agric
Cooperatives
Stakeholder meetings 2011/12 for information sharing,
debate, consolidating an appreciation that pre-and postharvest actions all contribute together to addressing
aflatoxin.
Time-line of NARI/Danish Management’s continuing/proposed sub-projects to support these
stakeholder’s own learning/training activities, Tanzania 2012-13
planting
Weeding/earthing up
Harvesting/grading/drying
shelling
Identify
test
groups
SRM
New radio
series
Radio series
cont’d
Radio series
cont’d
Shooting of groundnut GAP for aflatoxin
control video
Swahili aflatoxin
leaflet + pretest
ongoing
Nov
Dec
2012
Jan
Edit and
pretest
leaflet use in training, + feedback
for improvement
Feb
Mar
Apr
2013
Evaluation and planning for
radio + interactive voice
messages with TFNC
Radio series
cont’d
May
Dissemination, use in training,
feedback & evaluation
Improved leaflets, wider dissemination,
feedback & evaluation
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep Oct
Key points of our ICMM work
1) Researchers are engaging constructively with communication
media specialists and with a range of stakeholders in the groundnut
sector on pre- and post-harvest control/mitigation.
2) Diverse stakeholders included in decision making of
training/communication productions via feedback loops.
3) Our methodology – the informal Learning Alliance – is
systematically building relationships, sharing information,
encouraging joint analysis of problems and solutions that for
collaboration across stakeholder groups.
4) The approach can be extended to inform higher level policy
Gender consideration in aflatoxin
mitigation measures
• Groundnut is considered a women crop
• Women do the planting, weeding, harvesting,
plucking, shelling ,grading for the market
• There is fresh and dry groundnut value chains
• Women make decision in
consumption/preparation of food (need for
focused training targeting women)
Groundnut/Aflatoxin Research
challenges
• Farmers have no incentive to clean grain as there is no incentive by
way of price differentials. – no grades and standards (Policy)
• Capacity in aflatoxin detection at NARI and rapid testing in major
groundnut producing zones at buying centres
• Mass use of polypropylene sacks by farmers and traders (policy)
• Lack of specialisation in agriculture among media personnel (low
understanding/reporting in aflatoxin– degree training in
communication (policy)
• Inadequate funding for groundnut /aflatoxin research
• Inadequate availability and supply of improved groundnut seeds
• Competition from edible oil imports – Cheap oils imports (policy)
• Importation of aflatoxin free groundnuts for plumpynut processing –
Power foods
AREAS OF INTEREST TO LINKING WITH PACA
Key Proposed actions
1. Capacity building for management of aflatoxin in
groundnuts variety development and enabling policy
environment enhanced.
2. Nutritional status, dietary diversity, human health
and mycotoxin contamination problem spatially
characterized
3. Bio-control options – pre-harvest contamination
:atoxigenic strains of A.flavus, post harvest
contamination in stores– plant extracts, essential oils,
ammonia vapour
4. Innovative Communication aflatoxin mitigation
strategies -
Timeline
2013-2015
2013- 2015
2013-1015
2013-2015
Thank you