Crops drying to a safe moisture content and

handling: Challenges facing African countries

Gbemenou Joselin Benoit Gnonlonfin, PhDINRAB-BENIN/Independent Consultant

bgnonlonfin74@gmail.com

About the author• Gbemenou Joselin Benoit Gnonlonfin hold a PhD degree in Food safety from the Department of Veterinary Disease

Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. • His PhD studies were about aflatoxin contamination of Cassava chips and Manihot esculenta Crantz autodefence

mechanism. • He is Member of Codex African Experts Committee of Food Additives and Food Contaminants.• He is Member of the Mycotoxicology Society of Nigeria with registration No 145• He is Member of the committee of African Society of Mycotoxicology• From 2000 till date he has been involved in many research activities within many disciplines in collaboration with

universities, research centre and private sector in Africa, and beyond. • He has a broad research experience in that has developed advanced method of analysis of aflatoxin in modern state of

the art laboratories e.g. at South Africa Medical Research council of Cape Town (ex. PROMEC), Cape Town, South Africa. • He has performed intensive field work under rural conditions and capacity development in Africa including Benin,

Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia, Zambia, etc.

• He has conducted many trainings in that human and institutional capacity development. • He is interesting in research and capacity development and strengthening in the field of food safety with focus on

aflatoxin • He has contributed to the science by publishing a number of papers (about 30) in peer reviewed journals covering

aspects of occurrence, control and management of aflatoxin and fumonisin, policy, advocacy and training material .

The problem• Mycotoxins/aflatoxins contamination in some agricultural food commodities seriously

impact human and animal health and reduce the commercial value of crops. • Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi that colonize agricultural

commodities. • Pre- and postharvest contamination of aflatoxin is a major health concern in Africa where

priority crops production and consumption have increased significantly over the years.• Although, they have been efforts to reduce aflatoxin in maize through various strategies

including breeding for resistance, improved agronomic practices, cultural, harvesting and postharvest handling practices, and the use of bio-control agents.

• Proper drying and handling remain a challenge in Africa.• One of the major constraints is the inability of the small holder farmer to handle and

store food efficiently so that he/she can sell good quality produce• The standard of living in a rural community • Capacity to grow in quantity• Facilities for efficient handling, drying, storage, marketing

Traditional drying

Marketing in rural set up

Possible intervention to ensure proper drying and safety

Low cost raised platform: sun drying

High cost drying

Other low cost drying technology

•Cemented ground•Clean tarpaulin

• Mobile dryer: heated air dryer• Bubble dryer

Recommended moisture content for better storage: •Maize and other grain, 13%•Groundnut and oil seed, 8%

• Observe hygiene • Use of appropriate packaging material

Handling and storage

• Do not step on tarpaulin while spreading the produce to be dried.

• washed and disinfected tarpaulin using 10% bleach solution after the drying period or after a shift

• Make sure the tarpaulin is dried before putting the produce for drying.

• The feet of the person on top of the tarpaulin should be disinfected using 10% bleach solution and that person should remain on the tarpaulin until the spreading of the produce to be dried is completed.

• Alternatively a mixing palette could be used instead.

• Centralized government storage failed • poor quality control on incoming produce resulting in high in-storage loss rates• Low prices paid to farmers

Handling and storage

Outlook on soya project in Benin: “Improving rural soybean processors' income through processing and packaging in Benin”. www.sojagnon.org ; with finance support of PAEPARD, EU To improve soybean milk and soybean afitin (a local taste

enhancer) processing technologies produced by rural women

To investigate appropriate packaging material for long-term storage of soya milk

To ensure quality and safe soya milk

• Alternative solution to explore (not covered in the current project): • Adaptation of low cost drying and storage system: Proper drying and storage of

soya grain and process as demand arise: contamination by aflatoxin/mycotoxin may occur during storage. • Testing of appropriate packaging material that guarantee quality and safety

Recommendations• Adaptation and scaling up of raised platform for drying• Monitor drying and stop when the required moisture content is

reached• Consideration should be taking to the weather during the harvest

period• Develop solutions tailored to the local circumstances