Njeru Nancy Karimi, Midega Charles Aura Odhiambo, Muthomi James Wanjohi, Wagacha John Maina, Khan Zeyaur Rahman
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) Nairobi Kenya.
Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection University of Nairobi Nairobi Kenya.
Food Sci Nutr. 2019 Jun 11;7(7):2291-2301. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.1070. eCollection 2019 Jul.
Consumption of maize contaminated with mycotoxins has been associated with detrimental health effects. A farm survey covering 116 push-pull and 139 non-push-pull cropping systems was conducted to determine the socio-economic and agronomic factors that influence farmers' knowledge on incidence and contamination of maize by ear rots and associated mycotoxins in western Kenya. All the respondents were smallholder farmers between the ages of 23 and 80 years, with 50% of them being female. Maize samples were collected from the standing crop in the field of each interviewed farmer and analyzed for aflatoxin and fumonisin. Only a small proportion of farmers had knowledge of aflatoxin and ear rots in maize. Overall, less than 20% of maize samples were contaminated with both aflatoxin and fumonisin, and more maize samples were contaminated with fumonisin as compared to aflatoxin. Proportions of maize samples containing higher than the acceptable Kenyan regulatory threshold (10 µg/kg) for aflatoxin and European Commission regulatory threshold (1,000) µg/kg for fumonisin were lower in maize samples from push-pull cropping system. Age of farmer and county of residence were significantly and positively associated with knowledge of aflatoxin, while cropping system, county of residence, and level of education were positively associated with knowledge of maize ear rots. There was strong correlation between knowledge of maize ear rots and knowledge of aflatoxin. Levels of both aflatoxin and fumonisin were significantly and positively associated with the use of diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer at planting. Aflatoxin levels were also positively associated with stemborer damage. Agronomic practices were not significantly different between push-pull and non-push-pull farmers. However, use of DAP fertilizer was the most important agronomic factor since it was associated with both aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination of maize. These results imply that creating awareness is key to mitigation of ear rots and mycotoxin contamination of maize. The results also suggest that the levels of aflatoxin and fumonisin in maize in western Kenya were influenced both by pre-harvest agronomic practices and by the cropping system adopted, push-pull or not.
食用受霉菌毒素污染的玉米已被证明会对健康产生有害影响。开展了一项涵盖116个推拉式种植系统和139个非推拉式种植系统的农场调查，以确定影响肯尼亚西部农民对玉米穗腐病及其相关霉菌毒素的发病率和污染情况的认识的社会经济和农艺因素。所有受访者均为年龄在23岁至80岁之间的小农户，其中50%为女性。从每位受访农民田间的现存作物中采集玉米样本，分析其中的黄曲霉毒素和伏马毒素。只有一小部分农民了解玉米中的黄曲霉毒素和穗腐病。总体而言，不到20%的玉米样本同时受到黄曲霉毒素和伏马毒素的污染，且与黄曲霉毒素相比，受伏马毒素污染的玉米样本更多。来自推拉式种植系统的玉米样本中，黄曲霉毒素含量高于肯尼亚监管可接受阈值（10微克/千克）以及伏马毒素含量高于欧盟委员会监管阈值（1000微克/千克）的比例较低。农民年龄和居住县与黄曲霉毒素知识显著正相关，而种植系统、居住县和教育水平与玉米穗腐病知识呈正相关。玉米穗腐病知识与黄曲霉毒素知识之间存在很强的相关性。黄曲霉毒素和伏马毒素水平均与种植时使用磷酸二铵（DAP）肥料显著正相关。黄曲霉毒素水平还与螟虫危害呈正相关。推拉式种植和非推拉式种植的农民在农艺实践方面没有显著差异。然而，使用DAP肥料是最重要的农艺因素，因为它与玉米的黄曲霉毒素和伏马毒素污染均有关。这些结果表明，提高认识是减轻玉米穗腐病和霉菌毒素污染的关键。结果还表明，肯尼亚西部玉米中的黄曲霉毒素和伏马毒素水平既受收获前农艺实践的影响，也受所采用的种植系统（是否为推拉式）的影响。
