Poor Postharvest Practices Waste 15 000 tons of Maize in Kenya

In a time when severe food shortages are threatening sub saharan Africa, this is a read desperate story.

Some 300 000 bags of aflatoxin contaminated maize are expected to be bought from farmers in Kenya. This is necessary to protect consumers from the short and longer term toxic effects of aflatoxin.

The contamination of the maize was apparently a result of insufficient drying along with poor harvesting and storage practices.

A pity that food has to go to waste when the technology to minimise the risk is simple, cheap and available, so long as on the field drying is not made impossible by the weather.