innovations in outscaling technologies in ssa – aflasafe tm

Date: 15-Oct-2014 www.iita.org A member of CGIAR consortium

Innovations in Outscaling Technologies in SSA– aflasafeTM

Joao Augusto

Lawrence K. Kaptoge

Peter Cotty

Joseph Atehnkeng

Ranajit Bandyopadhyay

• Highly toxic metabolite produced by the ubiquitous Aspergillus flavus fungus

• The fungus infects crops and produces the toxin in the field and in stores

• Fungus carried from field to store

• Contamination possible without visible signs of the fungus

• Some predisposing factors: – pre-harvest high temp and

drought stress

– wet conditions at harvest and

post-harvest periods

– insect damage

Aflatoxin Facts

www.iita.org A member of CGIAR consortium

aflatoxins prevalence, Heath and Trade effects

Prevalence of Aflatoxins in Food & Feed • Several African staple commodities affected • High human exposure in Africa – mother to baby

Human and Animal Health Effects acute • acute hepatic necrosis, cirrhosis, carcinoma • Death; 200 people in Kenya; 74 in India chronic • carcinogenic • stunting in under-fives • anti-nutritional • immune-suppressive • gut integrity

Trade Losses due to Aflatoxins

• Nigeria and Senegal major groundnut exporters in 1960s. Compliance has economic incentives

• Senegal:

• If aflatoxin levels are reduced, then national income would increase by

– $281 million through oil cake export

– $45 million through confectionary groundnut export.

• Best quality exported; poorer quality consumed domestically.

Date: 15-Oct-2014

500 ppb AF diet AF-free diet

~40% reduction in live weight (8 weeks)

Groundnut Pyramids in

Nigeria during 1960s


Pre-Harvest Problem

Aflatoxin (ppb)ppb)

Peanut (n = 188) Maize (n = 241)

Distribution (% samples)

> 4 54 70

> 10 41 52

> 20 29 24

Descriptive statistics (ppb)

Minimum < LOD < LOD

Maximum 3487 838

Mean 111 33

LOD = Limit of Detection; 1 ppb

Aflatoxin in Groundnut and Maize at Harvest

Increases in store

Kenya (CDC and Kenyan Ministry of Health 2004)

District Samples

% samples with aflatoxin levels (ppb)

<20 21-99 100-1,000 >1,000

Makueni 91 35 13 40 12

Kitui 73 38 21 32 10

Machakos 102 49 25 23 3

Thika 76 66 17 13 4

Total 342 47% 19% 27% 7%

Tanzania (IITA & partners, unpublished, 2013)

Aflatoxins in Markets

Crops Samples % samples with aflatoxin levels (ppb)

<10 11-100 101-1,000 >1,000

Groundnut 180 89 11 0 0

Maize 287 71 15 10 4

Cassava 405 86 10 4 0.2


aflasafe development, effectiveness and safety

• Aflasafe is a safe and cost-effective biocontrol product that

reduces aflatoxins in field and stores

• A. flavus occurs naturally & both toxigenic and atoxigenic.

• Biological control involves introducing carefully selected

harmless atoxigenic strains, that have large competitive

advantages over toxic strains .

• competitive exclusion - The atoxigenic strains virtually

eliminate the toxic relatives and therefore considerably

reduce aflatoxin contamination

• aflasafe can reduce aflatoxin concentration by 60-96% in

maize at harvest and in storage.

• The beneficial effect of aflasafe is carried over from one

season to the next

• It is completely safe. There is no possibility of the four

constituent atoxigenic strains in becoming toxigenic.

Date: 15-Oct-2014


Strain Selection Criteria

In the laboratory (~5,000 strains):

• Does not produce aflatoxin

• VCG/SSR group with

Wide geographic distribution

No toxigenic member

• Defective in >2 aflatoxin & CPA

genes

• Outcompetes toxigenic strains

After field application:

• Superior capacity to colonize,

multiply and survive in soil

• Superior frequency of isolation

from grains

• Superior capacity to reduce

aflatoxin 8-12 native strains

selected for field tests

4 native strains

formulated into

the final

product

Broadcast @ 10 kg/ha 2-3 weeks before flowering

Sporulation on moist soil

Spores

Insects

Aflasafe in 2.5 & 5 kg bags

3-20 days

Wind

Soil colonization

30-33 grains m-2

How Does aflasafe Work?

Farmers treating maize and groundnut fields with AflaSafe

MAIZE: Aflatoxin reduction (%)

Stage 2009 2010 2011

Harvest 82 94 83

Storage 92 93 x

PEANUT: Aflatoxin reduction (%)

Stage 2009 2010 2011

Harvest - 95 82

Storage 100 80 x

71% and 52% carry-over of

inoculum 1 & 2 years after

application

Results from 382

on-farm trials


Nigeria: Efficacy on Maize

372

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2009 2010 2011 2012

Aflasafe™ Control

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

2009 2010 2011 2012

82 94 83 86 82 93 89 90

51 14 199 38 51 14 166 38 Fields (#)

Less (%)

At Harvest After Storage

*All means of aflasafe and control pairs significantly different; Student’s t-test (P<0.05)

*

Aflato

xin

(ppb)


Area Sample Treatment Mean

Aflatox (ppb)

Reduct. (%)

Mean Aflatox (ppb)

Reduct. (%)

Mean Aflatox (ppb)

Reduct. (%)

Diourbel

Harvest Treated 1.9

93 6.6

87 3.7

82 Control 29.7 50.1 20.3

Storage Treated 4.4

86 2.1

91 6.9

81 Control 31.3 22.1 35.5

Nioro

Harvest Treated 4.4

75 5.6

76 5.4

90 Control 17.6 23.1 55.7

Storage Treated 3.5

95 2.8

94 11.5

84 Control 52.1 46.7 72.5

*All means of aflasafe treated and control pairs significantly different; Student’s t-test (P<0.05)

Senegal: Efficacy of aflasafe SN01

2010 (n=40) 2011 (n=34) 2012 (n=71)


Basis of efficacy: species shift

Treatment (n = 14)

Aspergillus species/strain distribution (%) – MAIZE/NIGERIA

Soil before inoculation Grain at harvest L SBG parasiticus L SBG parasiticus

Aflasafe™ 90 aB 7 aA 3 aA 100 aB 0 bA 0 aA

Control 78 aB 15 aA 7 aA 83 bB 16 aA 0.3 aA

Means within the column with different lowercase letters are significantly different according to the t-

test at 5% level of probability. Means within the row with different uppercase letters are significantly

different according to the Fisher’s LSD test at 5% level of probability

Region

Treatment

Aspergillus Colony Forming Units/g – G-nut/Senegal 2010 (n = 20) 2011 (n = 17)

Soil Kernel Soil Kernel

Diourbel Control 2311 a 2912 a 474 a 3257 a

Aflasafe SN01 1793 a 3598 a 795 a 3965 a

Nioro Control 228 a 3367 a 369 a 3572 a

Aflasafe SN01 120 a 3189 a 470 a 4275 a

*All means of aflasafe and control pairs significantly different; Student’s t-test (P<0.05)

Aspergillus population does not increase due to aflasafe application

No change in Aspergillus Pop.


Bars with same letter within the same

crop/year not significantly different (P<0.05)

Basis of Efficacy: Strain Shift

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Soil Grain Soil Grain

2009 (n = 49) 2010 (n = 14)

Control Treated

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Soil Grain Soil Grain

2009 (n = 2) 2010 (n = 16)

Proportion of 4 aflasafe™ strains in soil before treatment

and grains after harvest in control and treated fields

Afl

asafe

str

ain

s (

%)

a a a a a a a a a a a a

b b b

b

Carry-over of inoculum: 71, 52

and 28% after 1, 2, and 3 years

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=lKk0dkUswMQkNM&tbnid=iNOHk0UxXmQVFM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://naijaintellect.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/nigerian-govt-releases-two-new-hybrid-maize-varieties/&ei=2BeSUsG8EKeH0AXah4DICw&bvm=bv.56988011,d.ZG4&psig=AFQjCNEwOZ2zmi8Rt6wdDo6BOODAz2xl1g&ust=1385392435580697


Kenya: Efficacy of aflasafe KE01™

Area (fields) Control Treated Reduction

(%)

Hola (n = 20) 885 20 98

Bura (n = 16) 105 7 93

Makueni (n = 15) 85 1 99

Aflatoxin (ppb)

*All means of aflasafe treated and control pairs significantly different; Student’s t-test (P<0.05)

38

20

0

88

60

33

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100Treated

Control

Fields (%) above 10 ppb in 3 areas

Fie

lds (

%)

Deadly (3,700 ppb & 2,270 ppb)

533 ppb

Hola

15

atoxigenic strain manufacturing facility Arizona Cotton Research & Protection Council, USA

AF36 production in USA


Aflasafe Pilot Plant Objectives

Demonstration-scale plant to be used as a model to:

• Optimize and adapt the manufacturing process

• Reduce aflasafe manufacturing cost

• Turn-key facility for replication in other countries

• Demonstrate commercial viability for mass production

of Aflasafe.

Date: 15-Oct-2014

www.iita.org A member of CGIAR consortium Date: 15-Oct-2014

Aflasafe Plant – Ibadan Nigeria

Partition: Labs, Substrate Processing and Packaging/storage of finished product.

Packaging & Finished Product Storage

Wash Rooms

Lab

Grain Intake, Cleaning, Pasteurisation and Storage


Aflasafe Plant - Ibadan Nigeria

Cooler

Roaster

aflasafe Plant

Aflasafe despatch 2014


Aflasafe Pilot Plant

Weighing & Heat Sealing

Inoculation & Weighing

Finished Product Storage

Final Package – Front & Back


Production 2014

• Production of aflasafe for:

Inoculum Production

2013 2014

Country Quantity (Tons) Quantity (Tons)

Nigeria 61 120

Burkina Faso 1.5

Senegal 6 10

The Gambia 2

Zambia 12 3

kenya 2

Mozambique 0 1

82.5 136

www.iita.org

• IITA

• USDA

• AATF

• BMGF/USAID

• Doreo Partners

• National institutions

Strong Partnership


Date: 15-Oct-2014 www.iita.org A member of CGIAR consortium

Product Development in Africa

Products ready for registration

Products under testing

Strain development in progress

Senegal Mali

Burkina

Ghana

Nigeria

Kenya

Tanzania

Mozambique

Zambia

Rwanda

Burundi

Uganda

2015/16

onwards

Benin

Togo

Ivory Coast

Ethiopia

South

Sudan?

Sierra

Leone?

…………

The Gambia

Malawi


Challenges

• Aflatoxin is a hidden problem

• Chemical analysis required

• Awareness is low

• Long incubation for expression of liver cancer

• Regulations either non-existent or poorly enforced

• Market does not usually discriminate

• Demonstration of product value

• Lack of biopesticide manufacturers

The value of a technology on the shelf is as much as the cost of the space it occupies on the shelf.

Must translate knowledge into usable products and practices to benefit people

But……


Key Elements • Farmer-centric: Farmers’ interest

as the foundation of the action. Value chain and home-grown food

• Action-oriented: Using practical methods which involve doing things to deal with problems, not just talking about ideas, plans, or theories

• Innovation platform: An approach to problem solving through which actors with a stake in a common issue or set of issues get together regularly to address their common challenges.

Mycored Europe, 28 May, 2013

Poultry Feeding Study

$3,200 net

profit from

10,000 birds

in 8 weeks

www.iita.org Mycored Europe, 28 May, 2013 A member of CGIAR consortium

Aflasafe maize feed Toxic maize feed


Integrated approach to manage aflatoxins

Aggregation

Aflasafe

Inputs & training to improve productivity

Farmer groups/ value chain

Training for pre/postharvest

afla management

Awareness and sensitizations Policy and advocacy

Market linkages

Aflatoxin testing

G-20 AgResults Aflasafe


• Pull mechanism – Aflasafe is one of the first three pilots

• Provides incentives after demonstrating adoption

• Private sector driven, but focused on smallholder groups

• Implementers provide credit, inputs and technical services to increase yield

• Aflasafe purchased at cost to improve quality

• Maize tested for aflasafe strains; if present in large frequency, the implementers incentivized with $18.75/ton maize

• Implementers negotiate maize sale at premium

• Project provides aflatoxin awareness, training of implementers, and identifies potential market linkages

• Target: 260,000 ha in 4 years

AgResults Aflasafe Pilot -- 2013


Some key statistics

• Number of implementers: 4

• Number of farmers: 1,015

• Treated area: 1,457 ha

• Average productivity: 4.3 tons/ha

• Maize aggregated for sale: 2,031 tons

• Samples with <4 ppb AF (n = 660): 99%

• Samples with >70% aflasafe strains

(n = 88): 65% to 100%

• ROI: -28 to 510% (mean 210%)

• Aflasafe maize kept for family (n = 60): 46%


Aflasafe Return on Investment

Quantity sold

(tons) Premium

(%) Premium

(USD)

Aflasafe cost

(USD)

Finance cost

(USD)

Net profit (USD)

Seasonal RoI

AgResults Premium

(USD)

Total Profit (USD)

Total RoI

120.0 7.5% 3,000 836 146 2,017 241% 1,800 3,817 456%

150.0 7.5% 3,750 1,046 183 2,521 241% 2,250 4,771 456%

96.0 3.6% 1,200 669 117 414 62% 1,440 1,854 277%

128.0 13.2% 5,600 892 156 4,552 510% 1,920 6,472 725%

32.0 7.5% 800 223 39 538 241% 480 1,018 456%

30.1 1.8% 188 210 37 -58 -28% 452 393 187%


Scaling-Out

• Nigeria: AgResults (260,000 t) • Senegal: Area-wide treatment in

2013; about 8 tons used • Kenya: Government buy-in;

excellent support • Zambia: Large-scale efficacy tests

and demonstration of product value with private sector (12 t)

• Need for business plan, manufacturing capacity, marketing and distribution strategies

• Critical role of PACA and RECs


Aflasafe Manufacturing Facility

Large-scale: capacity 5 tons/hour Cost: ~US$1.6 million; Price: $14 - $18/ha Purpose: Scaling up

Modular Manufacturing Facility Capacity: 15 tons/day Cost: ~US$800,000 Purpose: Introduction Cost: $12 – 15/ha Labour intensive

Biopesticides Registration

USDA-FAS support

• KEPHIS, Kenya: 2010 (regional)

• Ibadan, Nigeria: 2010 (regional)

• Addis Ababa: 2011 (regional)

• PCPB, Kenya: 2012 (national)

• Zanzibar, Tanzania: 2012 (regional)

• Dakar, Senegal: 2012 (national)

• Lilongwe, Malawi: 2013 (regional)

USDA-FAS also supports work on sampling protocols

Current and future biocontrol efforts

• Create a sustainable system (commercialization/public good)

where small holder farmers have access to Aflasafe and are

incentivized to utilize Aflasafe to control aflatoxin levels in

their maize

• Value chain and innovation platforms

• Develop cheaper manufacturing method

• Financing and implementation of manufacturing facility

• Advocacy, awareness, demonstration of product value

• Full registration, licensing and stewardship

• Training and technical back-stopping

• Develop second generation product

• Develop regional strains – fill country gaps in strain collection


Impact of aflasafe

Mycored Europe, 28 May, 2013

75

94 100

0 3

39

73

27

100

80

60

40

20

0

<4 <10 <20 >20

EU WFP US unsafe

maximum allowable aflatoxin level (ppb)

Aflasafe

untreated

Potential increase in productivity of

communities in aflasafe-treated areas

DALYs saved: 103,000 - 184,000 cost-effectiveness ratio: 5.1 - 24.8

Source: Felicia Wu, Pittsburgh Univ.

Trade Health

People @ IITA

• Pathology – Ranajit Bandyopadhyay

(Nigeria) – Joseph Atehnkeng (Nigeria) – Joao Augusto (Mozambique) – Charity Mutegi (Kenya) – Juliet Akello (Zambia) – Fen Beed (Tanzania) – Seun Olasupo (Lab; Ibadan) – Several visiting scientists

(Nick Garber, Lamine Senghor …. )

• Commercialization – Debo Akande (Nigeria) – Prem Warrior (consultant)

• Policy – Francesca Nelson (Tanzania)

• Breeding – Abebe Menkir (Nigeria)

• Socio-economics – Tahirou Abdoulaye (Nigeria)

• Engineering – Lawrence Kaptoge (Nigeria) – Benito Zeledon (Nigeria)

• Advocacy and awareness – All – Godwin Atser (Nigeria)

• Partnerships and training – All – National partners

• Impact of aflatoxins have several development dimensions:

– post-harvest losses, nutrition, health, crops, livestock, fish, trade, markets, policies, institutions and politics

• Reduction of aflatoxin will improve human health, increase farm income, improve profitability of animal industries, increase regional and international trade, and reputation of African products in global markets

Conclusion

• Aflatoxins in food and feed pervasive in Africa

• Biological control, as the foundation, with other practices can dramatically reduce aflatoxin contamination and improve food safety and security

• Efforts underway to pilot commercialization of aflatoxin biocontrol and develop regional strains

• The pilots need to be up-scaled and efforts to improve efficacy needs a fillip for wide-spread impact on health and trade in Africa

Summary

IITA

Tucson

USDA/ARS IITA, USDA, & Doreo have Teamed up to Bring

Aflatoxin Prevention to Africa

Made Possible by Many National Partners in Ministries, Industry, and on the Farm

Nigeria

For more information about aflatoxin biocontrol for Africa, check out: www.aflasafe.com

http://www.entwicklung.at/en/

innovations in outscaling technologies in ssa – aflasafe tm

Science

ppb aflatoxin

aflatoxin levels ppb

aflatoxin concentration

toxic strains

aflatoxins nigeria

harvest increases

maize n

harmless atoxigenic