Our Experience

AflaSTOP: Storage and Drying for Aflatoxin Prevention Kenya

Project Description

Over the course of five years, AflaSTOP was implemented by Agribusiness Systems International (ASI) and ACDI/VOCA, under the direction of Meridian Institute and in support of the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA). AflaSTOP was funded through a Global Development Alliance between USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). ASI tested new and existing maize drying and storage technologies. The goal was to identify the most effective ways for smallholder farmers to control aflatoxin during the period between harvest and sale. Aflatoxin is a toxic byproduct created by the Aspergillus fungus known to cause cancer, immune-system suppression, growth retardation, liver disease and death in both humans and domestic animals. The substance can contaminate grain before or after harvest.

To increase the likelihood that farmers adopt effective aflatoxin-mitigating technologies, ASI worked with dryer and storage manufacturers to design products that also addressed other common problems such as rats, insects, and mold.

Project Approach and Accomplishments

The AflaSTOP project leveraged scientifically rigorous research to establish that hermetic storage will arrest the increase of aflatoxin in stored maize, and then conducted economic and farmer behavior studies to promote PICS bags (and other hermetic devices) as the most suitable solution for smallholder farmers to adopt.

With regard to drying, AflaSTOP used human-centric design, grounded in marketplace realities to develop and pilot the EasyDry M500, a portable maize dryer. By endeavoring to keep the technology economically viable and accessible to smallholder farmers, AflaSTOP hopes that the EasyDry M500 will be used by smallholder farmers in Kenya and potentially other East African countries to dry their maize.

Hermetic Storage and Aflatoxin

AflaSTOP conducted the largest ‘real life’ aflatoxin storage trial to date of small-scale grain storage devices (90kgs – 1,000kgs). This conclusively demonstrated that hermetic storage is effective at arresting aflatoxin growth. It also established that in order to store maize well, the moisture level should be below 13.5%, but many farmers struggle to dry their maize down to 14 to 15% under favorable conditions. This held true in both a controlled ‘off-farm’ setting, where lab technicians took samples and bags were stored in locked, local stores, as well as in ‘real-world’ settings, where farmers stored at home, loading the bags and taking grain out as their needs dictated. AflaSTOP’s research and fieldwork identified four primary benefits of hermetic storage:

Hermetic storage is being promoted throughout East Africa with projects collaborating with private sector suppliers to match outreach with availability of product. The current move by different East African governments (currently Rwanda and Kenya) to ban plastic bags leaves the status of hermetic bags uncertain.

Innovations in Portable Drying

AflaSTOP also embraced a market-driven approach to develop and support the commercialization of viable drying technologies that allow smallholder farmers to dry their maize to safe levels for storage, lowering the moisture level from 18 to 20 percent to approximately 13.5 percent in 3 hours, maximizing the effectiveness of hermetic storage. AflaSTOP ultimately designed, locally manufactured, and piloted through commercial markets the EasyDry M500, a portable batch dryer that can be incorporated into a farmer’s normal post-harvest routine as a fee-based service. The has been endorsed by the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), and is currently being tested by Iowa State University in Uganda and Kansas State University in Ghana. As of March 2017, it has been piloted in Kenya, and Tanzania, and ranked 4th amongst hundreds of applicants in the . The EasyDry M500 also offers the opportunity to create off farm agricultural related jobs paying higher daily rates than casual work both in the manufacturing and service industries.

AflaSTOP believes the EasyDry M500 has the greatest potential to scale out in Kenya and Uganda, using two different business models, which will be described below. A website, , is now available to enable public access to manufacturing and operator resources as well as promotional materials and videos, and to update stakeholders on commercialization progress beyond the life of this project. In addition, AflaSTOP staff have started discussions in the last week of the project with BrazAfric, a Brazilian company which offers farm machinery to small and large scale farmers, on how the EasyDry M500 could be added to the range of technologies they offer to farmers, as well as how the EasyDry could be adapted to help dry coffee for a program in Uganda.

Research