Issue 5, October–December 2018
Welcome!
 The safari continues for Aflasafe in this fifth edition of ATTC News. We’ve a new country on board, as our journey reaches a major milestone in Tanzania with Aflasafe TZ01 now officially registered and available. We at ATTC have also been travelling beyond our usual stomping grounds, leaving experimental fields and business-development meetings behind to talk to farmers and capture their first-hand experiences using Aflasafe; in this edition, we tell fascinating tales and reveal some surprises from The Gambia. From neighbouring Senegal meanwhile, we bring you an agribusiness perspective, with news of an unusual and health-focussed business decision.
In Ghana and Burkina Faso, we’re nurturing Aflasafe champions and demonstrating the effectiveness of Aflasafe to farmers, agribusinesses and development organisation partners, and we are delighted to have secured the support of Burkinabe Kings as our first royal Aflasafe ambassadors. Our travels through both testing and testimonials to the realities on the ground have revealed unexpected benefits to using Aflasafe, as well as challenges that need tackling in the year to come.
 We’re moving into new territories when it comes to innovation too, as we explore partnerships and ways of working for effective commercialisation. We continue to advocate for food safety and share ideas, so read on to hear about a rather special side event, and how our royal blue product is now rightfully rubbing shoulders with royalty. We also bring you our regular features: country-by-country round-ups; a message from our Managing Director; our latest communications and R&D news; and what’s next on our ever-expanding and always-alluring horizon.
A word from the ATTC MD, Abdou Konlambigue
Our Managing Director shares his latest reflections on Aflasafe’s commercialisation journey and blossoming partnerships at all levels. We are demonstrating the effectiveness of Aflasafe to partners on the ground, getting to grips with real-world challenges, and sharing our lessons learnt. More
Latest news
The Gambia: Farmer voices on beating aflatoxin and beyond
 “Even when my crop was green and still growing in the field, I could already see that the crop treated with Aflasafe was distinctly different.” —Mr Kemo Diawarra, farmer
In October 2018 we took to the road to hear from the true new owners of our product: the farmers who use Aflasafe, and the manufacturers, distributors and other agencies that make it available to them. In The Gambia, since 2014 the National Food Security, Processing and Marketing Corporation has been working with 700 farmers selected to grow aflatoxin-safe groundnuts. We spoke with some of them about what attracted them to Aflasafe SN01, and what challenges they experienced. “Aflasafe has many benefits. I was particularly drawn to the health advantages and prevention of liver cancer. And then there is the better price offered for Aflasafe-treated groundnuts. Both of these aspects are very important for family and community health and wellbeing,” said Mr Pa-Modou Diouf.
 All the farmers we spoke to noticed clear and substantial benefits from using Aflasafe SN01 (and we’ll have more on their aflatoxin-smashing results in our next edition). Some of these benefits were rather surprising, with Aflasafe-treated fields giving more and better-quality harvests in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. Farmers are so impressed that they’re taking charge of encouraging and training fellow farmers to use it. Read on to find out why Pa-Modou recommends Aflasafe unreservedly and to all: “I don’t just recommend it to my friends but even to my ‘bad friends’ and enemies!” More
Ghana: Live testing and leadership at every level
 New partners, leaders, new regions and new knowledge are all joining the Aflasafe army in the fight against aflatoxin in Ghana as we clearly demonstrate Aflasafe GH02’s effectiveness. A new National Steering Committee for Aflatoxin Control has been inaugurated by the government to provide direction and coordination at national level, while we at ATTC continue to support our distribution partner, Macrofertil Ghana Ltd, in fostering Aflasafe champions on the ground. Through on-the-spot testing of aflatoxin levels in our growing number of demonstration fields, farmers and local partners are seeing for themselves how Aflasafe GH02 slashes contamination and protects health and incomes. We’re also using meetings, events and the radio airwaves to take our message to the public, farming and food-industry frontrunners, and civil-society leaders – and what a joy to receive ‘royal’ approval from ‘market queens’!
 Demand, support and leadership from across Ghanaian government and society is exactly what new-on-the-market Aflasafe GH02 needs to flourish in the long term. We’re delighted to be handing it over to such an array of committed aflatoxin fighters, and we’ll continue to build relationships and share knowledge to swell the ranks of Aflasafe GH02’s champions.
Additional country roundups
Burkina Faso
 In a majestic turn of events in Burkina Faso, our demonstration sites have wowed communities and farmer groups, and we were deeply honoured to meet and earn the support of the King of Pô and the King of Bouèga in November 2018. Both monarchs have pledged to use their influence as ambassadors for Aflasafe BF01 among their people, as well as before industry and government. Meanwhile, thanks to live, participatory field-testing for aflatoxin content, farmers are seeing for themselves how Aflasafe keeps food safe from dangerous contamination. More
 Senegal
In Senegal we were fascinated to get a business perspective and hear about an unusual approach from Mr Habib Thiam, agribusiness entrepreneur, who has been using Aflasafe SN01 for four years. He has consistently seen excellent results from Aflasafe, and, having learnt about the devastating health impacts of aflatoxin, has decided to focus on the domestic market first. “You have to heal yourself before you begin to heal others,” he says. More
Tanzania
In a giant leap towards commercial availability, Aflasafe TZ01 has been officially registered with the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute in Tanzania for use in maize and groundnuts. This paves the path for local manufacture and distribution, which will see Tanzania join six other African nations where Aflasafe is commercially available to protect food against aflatoxin. More
Nigeria
 Aflasafe™ has been excelling in external testing in Nigeria – external in more ways than one, since it was conducted both in the field far from the lab, and by one of our private-sector partners, Olam Nigeria, rather than by IITA. We travel to Jigawa State for a sneak preview of this exciting new way of doing business as the handover of Aflasafe from IITA continues. More
Kenya
In Kenya, we’re providing training on how to apply Aflasafe KE01 not only to farmers but also those who will support farmers in their turn, with demonstrations and training in the field and ongoing support and monitoring. More
More
 Don’t see an update on your country of interest? Aflasafe is currently commercially available or registered in eight countries across Africa, and is undergoing development, testing or registration in nine more. For all the latest details, visit Aflasafe where I am.
New from us, and news from the world
 Communications and media
We continue to explore fresh territories and new ways of getting our message across with all the visual impact of the silver screen. The final quarter of 2018 has seen us broach a new series, a new language and a new food as our video collection blossoms in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Senegal. We’ve also harvested another bumper crop of press cuttings from across Africa. More
For all the magic of the movies, there there’s no substitute for face-to-face discussion: and so, at the 3rd PACA Partnership Platform Meeting in Dakar, Senegal in October, ATTC hosted a side event entitled Scaling aflatoxin mitigation technologies and strategies: Lessons from the field. A wide cross-section of our partners and stakeholders came together to share key observations and practical lessons from ATTC. More
Aflasafe R&D
Aflasafe was submitted for registration in Mozambique in 2018, and we will bring you more good news from the country in the course of 2019. Meanwhile, as the R&D process continues in Uganda and Aflasafe availability comes ever closer, the country launched its National Action Plan and Strategy for Aflatoxin Control in Kampala in October 2018, reflecting Uganda’s ongoing collaboration with the African Union Commission’s Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) as a priority country for aflatoxin control. Check out the coverage via the #AntiAflatoxinsCampaignUG hashtag on Twitter.
Meanwhile, our colleagues at AgResults have published a brief (available to download in PDF) evaluating their lessons learnt from the Nigeria Aflasafe™ Pilot to cultivate a market for Aflasafe-protected maize. As part of the project, they created an annual prize for the company purchasing the largest quantity of treated grain from farmers – which the 2018 winner is now investing in further improving their grain quality.
 And beyond Africa’s shores, Aflasafe is grabbing global recognition as we begin providing technical support in the testing, registration and scaling up of a similar product for Pakistan. Dr Alejandro Ortega-Beltrán kicked off the relationship with a personal touch by attending AflaPak’s launch; IITA now looks forward to providing training and advice, and sharing the example of Aflasafe’s success with decision-makers. More
What next for Aflasafe commercialisation?
 Since product performance is at the very heart of the commercialisation process, we will continue what we’ve started in rigorously and objectively putting Aflasafe through its paces in a real-world context, where we shall take a back-seat as guides and enablers, not doers. What will these tests show and what will the users say? Our manufacturing and distribution partners are just as eager to know as we ourselves are. The answers to these questions, and the information they reveal, are invaluable commercialisation tools, and our partners will be building them into their marketing toolkits during the first quarter of 2019. We also anticipate bringing you more of these external voices and objective perspectives in our next edition of ATTC News, as more results roll in to complement those from 2018, some of which are reported here. Increasingly, the private sector continues coming on board too as both clients and actors, adding to our list of satisfied customers, starting with Acirfa Shipping International. We’ll also be officially launching Aflasafe TZ01, so watch this space!
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