The Africa Strategic Grain Reserve Conference

14 - 15 June 2016. Nairobi, Kenya. The Africa Strategic Grain Reserve Conference. 

The 2016 first Africa Strategic Grain Reserve Conference was an opportunity to discuss large-scale storage and national grain reserves from the perspective of users, experts, and policy makers in the field, and introduce innovative storage strategies and solutions to strengthen Africa’s food security and food safety. The prevalence and growth of aflatoxin in stored grain continues to be a leading food safety issue on the continent.

Conference Sponsors include the Africa Union’s Partnership for Aflatoxin Control (PACA), Abt Associates, the Schooner Africa Fund, AGCO/GSI and GrainPro.

Partners include the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Farm Concern International, Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS), and the World Food Preservation Center.

Extract of the programme:

Session 3:

• Aflatoxin small holder storage
• Aflatoxin large scale storage
• Post harvest storage for small holder farmers in South Sudan

Session 4:

• Hermetic storage
• Grains silos
• Purdue Improved Crop Storage
• Grain storage

Q and A Session 3 and 4: Breakout group 3: Aflatoxin

• How should the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) address aflatoxin issues?
• Will they commit to testing for aflatoxin?
• Impact of aflatoxin in nutrition?

Related: 
16/06. Farmers in Sh38 billion grain losses

The conference also noted that sometimes, due to early harvest, the maize is affected by aflatoxin and thus becomes unsuitable for the market.