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 Organisation (WHO), large doses of aflatoxin leads to acute poisoning (aflatoxicosis) that can be life-threatening, usually through damage to the liver.
