The horizont3000 joint project “Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) East Africa“ endeavours to empower farmers by equipping them with the skills to engage in market-oriented agriculture while ensuring food security. Currently, one focus of the ERI project is to actively address a significant threat to maize and other crops in East Africa: aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a harmful substance produced by the Aspergillus flavus fungus, which can grow on crops such as maize and groundnuts, both during their development in the field and after harvest.
The consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated produce can have severe health consequences, including liver damage, liver cancer, and stunted growth in children. In Uganda, aflatoxin is linked to approximately 3,600 deaths annually. Beyond its health impacts, aflatoxin also diminishes the marketability of crops. For example, in 2018, Kenya rejected 600,000 tons of Ugandan maize due to aflatoxin contamination, leading to lower prices and lost income for farmers.
"Aflatoxin contamination threatens food safety, public health and global market access for key crops"
Dr. Moses Andima - Busitema University, Uganda
Fortunately, several strategies can help prevent Aspergillus flavus growth and aflatoxin contamination. Maintaining adequate soil fertility promotes vigorous plant growth, making them less susceptible to the fungus. Rotating crops can disrupt the fungus's life cycle. Prompt harvesting reduces the time crops are exposed to fungal growth. Effective post-harvest practices, including sorting affected produce to prevent further spread, proper drying techniques, and the use of appropriate storage methods such as hermetic bags, are also crucial.
In addition to these preventative measures, researchers are exploring innovative solutions. One approach involves releasing non-toxic strains of Aspergillus (registered and marketed as Aflasafe) and other beneficial fungi of the Trichoderma genus to outcompete the toxin-producing ones during crop development. Trichoderma – has been studied extensively by a team of researchers of Busitema University led by Dr. Moses Andima resulting in the development of the organic product Trichos. Furthermore, Trichos has been shown to enhance crop yield due to the symbiotic relationship between plant roots and fungal hyphae, which is the root-like structure of fungi.
As ERI team, we first learned about the Aflasafe method (using a non-toxic Aspergillus strain) at the 2023 Agroecology Conference in Nairobi. In 2024, a collaboration was established with Dr. Moses Andima of Busitema University, who trained staff of ERI partner organisation Caritas Tororo on aflatoxin prevention. ERI staff then shared this knowledge with the Haggulu farmer association in Busia District, using pictorials that are part of the ERI methodology to demonstrate good agricultural practices.
Dr. Moses Andima also teamed up with Dr. Jolly Akullo to conduct a training session on aflatoxin and its prevention for all four ERI partners during their annual refresher training, followed by online training for horizont3000 partners in February 2025. Discussions are currently underway to conduct field trials on aflatoxin prevention (using Trichos) with selected ERI farmers. Furthermore, a proposal by Dr. Moses Andima to the Ugandan Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI-OP) to collaborate with the ERI project has been funded as of January 2025.
Through their work, the ERI project and its partners have identified several key lessons:
The ERI joint project is currently being implemented by four partners, with funding from horizont3000. These partners—Caritas Tororo, Caritas MADDO, YARD (Uganda), and OWSL (Tanzania)—work with a network of 116 farmer groups, 10 associations, 11 cooperatives, and 15 school clubs across nine districts in Uganda (Tororo, Busia, Manafwa, Namisindwa, Rakai, Kyotera, Buikwe, Kayunga, and Buvuma) and two districts in Tanzania (Bunda and Serengeti). Key components of ERI include participatory farming trials, covering aspects like crop varieties, organic farming methods, and improved post-harvest handling, as well as participatory market research, enterprise development, and promoting savings for group and individual investments.
