The world is presently facing a myriad of challenges including, climate change, COVID-19, natural disasters, increased cost of living, and conflict. These in turn affect food safety and security—a situation that transcends frontiers across the globe.
Conflicts in countries like Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Mali, Nigeria, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Palestine, Mexico, and Haiti, among others, are preventing the full potential of food production from being achieved. These conflict situations have severe repercussions, such as shortfalls in global food production.
In a recently published opinion paper on the influence of conflicts on food safety titled “Addressing another threat to food safety: conflict,” IITA/CGIAR researchers Alejandro Ortega-Beltran and Ranajit Bandyopadhyay explored the effect of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia on food security and safety across the globe with the resulting complex spillover problems such as mycotoxins that have the potential to negatively impact on health, society, and the economy.
According to the op-ed, this conflict is gradually negatively affecting not only food security but also food safety as crops produced in Ukraine and Russia, which are at a lower risk of aflatoxin contamination, are not reaching their final destination in many countries; and only a small fraction of the crops usually exported have left Ukraine since the conflict began in February 2022 because of the stalemate in agricultural production and/or trade. Food insecurity is worsening in many of the importing countries, including many in Africa—Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Benin, Sudan, and DR Congo—that rely heavily on wheat from Ukraine and Russia. Importing countries may have to increase production of staple crops. However, many of the importing countries located in tropical and subtropical areas will have a higher risk of mycotoxin contamination because their productive regions have conducive conditions for mycotoxin contamination.
Exploring how conflict impacts food safety, the op-ed highlighted some of the common and often overlooked mycotoxin contamination problems prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. According to Ortega-Beltran and Bandyopadhyay, Africa is already losing over US$ 670 million/year in export earnings due to aflatoxin, and climate change is exacerbating the mycotoxin challenge. Unlike high-income countries where aflatoxins are regulated at parts per billion (ppb) and strictly legislated due to the effects on human health, the situation is quite different in low- and middle-income countries, with countries in Africa linking over 30% of liver cancer cases to aflatoxins.
Among other concerns raised by the op-ed, in the face of a looming global food crisis, there is the urgent need to design agro-food systems to meet shortfalls from breadbaskets, and to include food safety in food security programs as part of measures to address these concerns. With the aid of integrated strategies converging policy, institutional, and technical innovations, food safety can be protected.
IITA, a CGIAR research institute, and partners have made significant progress in developing technologies to reduce mycotoxin contamination. These include integrated mycotoxin management strategies consisting of sound pre- and postharvest interventions, extension services, mycotoxin testing, improved storage, and access to markets, among other practices. These are resulting in safer food, improved health, and greater income in various African countries with support from different programs, including One CGIAR Plant Health Initiative.
The op-ed posits that implementation of mycotoxin management programs must be accompanied by the appropriate support from the trade, health, and policy sectors among other key stakeholders in African countries and globally. Food security and safety programs aiming to address these concerns should employ integrated food safety management to fulfill their objectives.
As governments across Africa and the world are deploying various interventions to cope with the several threats—including climate change, pandemics, and conflict, it is a must that technical, institutional, and policy solutions are converged to prevent the crises of food security, food safety, and malnutrition. Governments, research consortia, the private sector, development organizations, and local communities must act in consonance now to ensure that this happens!
Contacts
Alejandro Ortega-Beltran, a.beltran@cgiar.org
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Contributed by Timilehin Osunde
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