Scientists from IITA–CGIAR have published a comprehensive review of aflatoxin biocontrol in the Annual Review of Phytopathology, the world’s leading plant pathology journal, with an impact factor of 13.6. The invited contribution marks a major milestone in global efforts to reduce aflatoxin contamination and improve food safety. The review synthesizes decades of scientific advances, field experience, and public-private partnerships aimed at addressing this persistent food-safety challenge.
The article, co-authored by IITA plant pathologists Alejandro Ortega-Beltran, Joseph Atehnkeng, Joao Augusto, George Mahuku, together with IITA Emeritus Scientist Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, reviews the science behind aflatoxin biocontrol, its evolution from research to commercial technology, and the conditions needed to deliver it at scale. It highlights IITA’s leading role in advancing this approach across Africa and provides a global overview of aflatoxin biocontrol efforts by other research groups and development organizations. As an open-access publication, the review makes this knowledge freely available to researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders worldwide. Link to the article: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-phyto-011325-114015
Aflatoxins are highly toxic compounds produced mainly by Aspergillus flavus and closely related fungi. Aflatoxin B1 is among the most potent naturally occurring carcinogens known. Contamination of important staple crops such as maize and groundnut threatens food safety, public health, farmer livelihoods, and agricultural trade, particularly in Africa.
For decades, managing aflatoxin has been challenging because contamination is influenced by multiple factors, including climatic conditions, fungal populations, crop genetics, insect damage, agronomic practices, and postharvest conditions. Biocontrol offers a different approach: rather than trying to eliminate toxin-producing fungi, it shifts the fungal community toward beneficial strains that do not produce aflatoxin, thereby significantly reducing aflatoxin contamination before harvest.
Harnessing beneficial native fungi
Populations of A. flavus naturally contain both aflatoxin-producing and non-toxic (atoxigenic) strains. Scientists have identified naturally occurring atoxigenic strains that outcompete toxin-producing strains and developed them into effective biocontrol products.
Applied before crop flowering and during canopy expansion, these beneficial fungi become established in the field and reduce the prevalence of aflatoxin-producing strains. Across Africa, locally adapted biocontrol products have consistently reduced aflatoxin contamination by more than 80% and up to 100%.
Decades of research and implementation have shown that local adaptation is critical. Fungal communities and environmental conditions vary across regions, so strains effective in one environment may perform poorly elsewhere. IITA therefore identifies and selects native atoxigenic strains adapted to local agroecologies—a principle that underpins Aflasafe®, a portfolio of country- and/or regionally-adapted biocontrol products.
From discovery to impact
IITA’s contribution goes beyond proving that biocontrol works. Together with its partners, the Institute has translated scientific discoveries into practical solutions that are registered, manufactured, distributed, adopted by farmers, and integrated into food value chains. Aflasafe products are now registered or deployed in multiple African countries, supported by national research systems, regulatory frameworks, local manufacturing, distribution, and networks, and market partnerships. This ecosystem has been critical to translating research into sustainable impact at scale. This achievement reflects decades of truly multidisciplinary effort involving plant pathologists, breeders, food safety and postharvest specialists, engineers, social scientists, extensionists, regulators, commercialization experts, and many others.
The benefits extend across the entire value chain. Farmers can produce safer crops, achieve better health, access premium markets, and higher incomes, while reduced aflatoxin contamination strengthens food safety, better human and animal health, and builds confidence among buyers and processors. Farmers themselves provide compelling evidence of the technology’s value. They frequently report that treated crops look healthier, while some observe better health and productivity among livestock fed with grain or forage from treated fields.
A systems solution
Aflatoxin control requires more than a single technology. Aflasafe provides a highly effective pre-harvest foundation, but its impact is maximized when integrated with improved varieties, good agricultural practices, proper harvesting and storage, affordable testing and monitoring, traceability, digital advisory tools, effective regulation, an enabling environment, and market incentives for safer commodities.
Integration can also support nutrition outcomes. For example, combining Aflasafe with nutrient-dense crops such as provitamin A maize creates an opportunity to simultaneously improve food safety and nutrition, particularly in communities where maize is a major component of children’s diets.
Experiences across several countries demonstrate that sustainable aflatoxin management depends on coordinated action among farmers, researchers, policymakers, private-sector actors, regulators, development organizations, and extension services. Effective technologies achieve their greatest impact when supported by enabling policies, functioning markets, farmer awareness, and strong value-chain partnerships. Weakness in any one of these areas can limit the impact of an otherwise effective technology.
The next frontier: scale
The science of aflatoxin biocontrol has matured from promising research into a proven and scalable technology. The priority now is to make effective biocontrol available and affordable to millions of farmers, while strengthening incentives across food value chains for safer commodities.
Achieving this will require sustained investment, enabling policies and stronger collaboration among researchers, governments, regulators, manufacturers, distributors, farmers, food processors, development partners, and consumers. It also requires integrating biocontrol within broader food safety, market development, and agricultural transformation efforts.
IITA’s experience demonstrates what is possible when long-term sustained investments in innovation are supported from discovery through product development, commercialization, adoption, and impact. By harnessing naturally occurring atoxigenic fungi, biocontrol has become a practical tool for reducing aflatoxin contamination and protecting health. The next frontier is to scale this proven solution to the farmers, communities, and food systems that need it most.
Contribué par
Alejandro Ortega-Beltran, Joao Augusto, George Mahuku, and Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
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