Abstract:
There are adverse impacts by the changing climate o
n the agricultural sector; Kenya’s back borne may
exacerbate the challenges of ensuring food safety a
nd security, and reducing poverty in Africa as a
whole. Understanding how climate change scenarios w
ill affect agriculture is essential in ensuring
future food security. In this paper whose objective
was to review the potential impact of climate chan
ge
on important mycotoxins that contaminate maize in Ke
nya, it focused on climatic factors: temperature
and relative humidity, which affect fungal infectio
n of crops and mycotoxin production by these fungi.
Aflatoxins are potent mycotoxins that cause immune
weakening, cancer and even death. Aflatoxin
contamination causes significant loss for farmers,
businessmen, marketers and consumers of varied
susceptible crops. Climate change alters the comple
x communities of aflatoxin-producing fungi. This
includes changes in space, time and in the quantity
of aflatoxin-producers. Generally, if the temperat
ure
increases in cool or temperate climates, the respec
tive countries may become more susceptible to
aflatoxins. However, tropical countries may become
too inhospitable for conventional fungal growth
and mycotoxin production. Although some regions can
afford to control the environment of storage
facilities to minimize post-harvest problems, this h
appens at high additional cost.
