The National Cereals and Produce Board will sell and educate farmers on the use and application of aflasafe to fight aflatoxin.
NCPB managing director Joseph Kimote said aflasafe is both a health and an agricultural issue that needs to be given all the support that it can get.
Aflasafe is a bio-control product used by farmers when planting to control aflatoxin.
“To have safe food, farmers need to get it right at the onset. We can only successfully deal with aflatoxin if we start right at the field,” Kimote said on Monday.
He spoke during a training at a hotel in Nairobi on the use of aflasafe and how to disseminate information on its use to farmers.
Aflasafe is manufactured by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture and the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation. Arysta Lifescience and Koppert have partnered to distribute it in Kenya.
Aflatoxin is a poison produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus, which resides in the soil and infects crops in the field, with the most susceptible crops being maize and groundnuts, Kimote said.
“Aflatoxin are linked to high prevalence of cancers in the country and its contamination begins right in the field. Efforts are being made to sensitise farmers in liaison with other stakeholders including the county governments on application of aflasafe to crops in the field as a preventive measure,” he said.
He added that the use of aflasafe significantly lessens aflatoxin levels in maize and groundnut in comparison to untreated crops.
Charles Macharia, Koppet Biological Systems Limited general manager said farmers can buy the aflasafe product in 29 of the NCPB stores across the country.
“Plans are at an advanced stage to distribute the product in the upcoming October-November-December rainy season, particularly in the eastern part of the country, where the short-rains period is the main planting season. In the Rift and Western counties, the foundation will continue to be laid ahead of the long-rains season in 2021,” he said.
The seminar also looked at ways of marketing aflasafe and ensuring it is widely accepted by farmers as a must-use farm input in the country.
“NCPB deals in a variety of fertilisers that are sold to farmers at competitive prices and aflasafe is one of its range of farm inputs. Farmers can visit any NCPB depot to purchase aflasafe and ensure that their crops are safe and free from aflatoxin,” Kimote said.
