Cheap gadget offers solution to afflatoxin

Aflatoxin has for several years robbed farmers of their profits. Having been hit severally by it, a Kitui farmer has invented an anti-aflatoxin apparatus capable of preserving maize and other grains for longer periods to the relief of farmers in the region prone to aflatoxin infections. The apparatus which has been show cased in many science and technology clinics in the country comes at a time when the farmers expect better yields following heavy short rains that have pounded the area. Michael Makuthu a resident in Nzangathi Location, Kitui Central District says he came up with the innovation in 2010 after he lost eight bags of maize out of ten bags he had harvested to aflatoxin mold. ’In addition to the grain loss, six members of my family were hospitalized at Kitui General Hospital after they fed on maize affected by the deadly disease,’’ says Makuthu, adding it was that he crafted a method of preventing the disease that killed more than 60 people in the region in 2009. He says the technology of making the apparatus is simple as the only raw material needed is a fine wire mesh, which is twisted in way to make a cylinder like tube equivalent to the size of a maize bag. He explains that after the maize is dried and stored in the bags, the apparatus is then inserted in the middle of the bag to play three roles of moisture dehydration, aeration and cooling. According Makuthu, aflatoxin affects maize right from the shamba as spores of aflatoxin and weevils have habit of hiding in the drying maize corns. ’When the maize is eventually harvested, dried and stored in bags, there is humidity which accelerates aflatoxin infection. The antiaflatoxin grain preservation apparatus mechanism there helps to reduce the humidity in the grains and subsequent attack from molds which cause aflatoxin and other pests,’’ explains Makuthu. He asserts that according to insect physiology, the eggs of weevils which cause aflatoxin cannot be hatched below temperatures of 22 degrees Celsius and the apparatus helps reduce the temperatures to even below 15 degrees celsius. Business is brisk for Makuthu during the harvest period when farmers jam to his home to buy the gadgets which sells between 600 shillings to 700 shillings depending on the size of the maize bag. ‘’It may look expensive because the apparatus is needed for every bag but farmers prefer the apparatus because they are not only effective to aflatoxin molds alone but also to other pests destructive to grains,’’ notes Makuthu adding that the apparatus can preserve grains for more than 10 years. He says he has sought grant from the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) to fully commercialize the facility as well as carrying out more research with a view of coming up with cost effective technology friendly to the farmer. The apparatus was show cased for the first time in the first National Council for Science and Technology clinic at KICC in Nairobi in May this year drawing attention of the Council chairman Abdulrazak Shaukat who commended that the apparatus is a more vibrant and sustainable technique for aflatoxin control in stored grains. Agencies

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Cheap gadget offers solution to afflatoxin