Supported by funding from the United States Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), a two-week training program was organized by the IITA Aflasafe Unit in Ibadan, Nigeria, for researchers specializing in aflatoxin biocontrol from the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) du Mali, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), and CAB International (CABI). Partners from Rafhan Maize, a subsidiary of the US-based Ingredion company and a leading private-sector maize company in Pakistan, also attended the training.
Dr Lloyd Garcia from USDA-FAS attended the training to facilitate collaborative solutions to advance enhanced projects and define ways forward on efforts to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in target crops. PARC, CABI, and Rafhan Maize have developed the aflatoxin biocontrol product AflaPak in collaboration with USDA – Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and IITA. IER and INRAN scientists have been collaborating with IITA Aflasafe Unit since 2017 and 2019 to develop, test, register, and commercially use Aflasafe in their countries as part of a USDA-FAS-funded project and under the Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies (CSAT) for Mali and Niger Project funded by the Royal Embassy of Norway in Mali.