A biocontrol technology called AflasafeTZ could help control the deadly aflatoxin contamination in maize and groundnuts in Tanzania, scientists say.
After a two-year field trial conducted in several sites across Tanzania, AflasafeTZ reduced contamination of food crops with the poisonous fungus by over 85 per cent, according to the results of a trial presented at a meeting in Tanzania last month (15 November).
Aflatoxin, a poisonous chemical found in soil and produced by the naturally occurring Aspergillus flavus fungi, is a major threat to public health and food security in Africa and other parts of the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Read more