Food security and safety concerns in animal production and public health issues in Africa: A perspective of COVID-19 pandemic era

The impact of COVID-19 on food security can best be understood from the downturn on agricultural and other related economic activities which were almost brought to a total halt during the pandemic. The restriction of movement/lockdown policy instituted by various governments heavily affected local and national food production as farmers could not go to their farmlands. More so, there was price gouging on raw food items as local farmers were reducing cultivation and harvest because of their safety. The lockdown also affected the transportation of food products from farms and local companies to the market and across inter-state/province borders. Additionally, many human infections traceable to disease outbreak from animal origin suggest a great risk of exposure to infectious agents by live animal farmers. In combating this menace, local food production needs to be encouraged more, while measures should be put in place to facilitate farmer's participation in government regulations on enforcing biosecurity, health standards, disease monitoring, and surveillance practices.

Pesticide contamination of Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) for human consumption

The use of pesticides contributes to the productivity and the quality of the cultivated crop. A large portion of the agricultural produce is not consumed as it is not an edible part or the quality of the product is too low. This waste of agricultural produce can be valorised as a substrate for the production of certain insects for human consumption. However, pesticides applied on the plants might accumulate during the life cycle of the insects fed on the waste materials and may cause a health risk to humans consuming the insects. Pesticide residues in larvae of the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor, were investigated. We monitored the accumulation of pesticides in the larvae upon consumption of contaminated fresh produce. An increased uptake rate by the insects was found for pesticides with higher Kow-values. Excretion of pesticides by the insect was inversely related to the log(Kow) values of the pesticides.

X-ray imaging methods for internal quality evaluation of agricultural produce

A number of non-destructive methods for internal quality evaluation have been studied by different researchers over the past eight decades. X-ray and computed tomography imaging techniques are few of them which are gaining popularity now days in various fields of agriculture and food quality evaluation. These techniques, so far predominantly used in medical applications, have also been explored for internal quality inspection of various agricultural products non-destructively, when quality features are not visible on the surface of the products. Though, safety of operators and time required for tests are of concern, the non-destructive nature of these techniques has great potential for wide applications on agricultural produce. This paper presents insight of X-ray based non-destructive techniques such as X-ray imaging and Computed Tomography (CT). The concepts, properties, equipment and their parameters, systems and applications associated with the use of X-rays and CT for agricultural produce have been elaborated.