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Tighter aflatoxin checks loom for Ugandan maize

maize

Workers harvest maize in Uasin Gishu. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Maize imports from Uganda are expected to significantly drop as the government moves to enforce tighter aflatoxin checks on the commodity from the neighbouring country in the coming few months.

Maize traders will be required to show a certificate from a competent authority showing that the grain from Uganda is free from the cancer-causing toxins.

Ugandan maize has recorded high levels of aflatoxin and millers, especially the large ones, have been reluctant to use the grain.

“Soon we are going to make it mandatory for maize traders from Uganda to produce a certificate that indicates whatever they are bringing to Kenya is free from aflatoxin,” said Leonard Kubok, Head of the Food Crops Directorate.

The recommended levels of aflatoxin in a sample of grain is 10 parts per billion with any grain that exceeds that considered unsuitable for human consumption.

At the same time, National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) is setting up five analytical labs in the country to step up aflatoxin checks in maize.

NCPB currently has only one testing lab in Nairobi with four more expected to be put up in Kitale, Machakos and Nakuru.

NCPB regional manager for North Rift Gilbert Rotich said the agency will start testing maize as a requirement before buying the grain from farmers.

Aflatoxin has not been one of the parameters in quality checks for maize that the agency has been buying from farmers. NCPB has been grading the produce basing on the percentage of diseased, discoloured and broken grain as well as checking on the levels of moisture.

The government has stepped up war on aflatoxin and recently it announced a partnership between private firms and NCPB in distribution of Aflasafe- a biochemical product used in suppressing the levels of aflatoxin in crops by up to 70 percent.