Heavy Metals Contamination of Arable Lands: A Threat to Food Security and Safety

African nations which are often categorized as either developing or underdeveloped economy has agriculture and industrialization as the mainstay for their economy. Industrialization in most African nations is usually faced with the problem of releasing untreated effluents and wastes into the environment. As a result of these, most of the arable land used for agricultural purposes is usually bedeviled with the burden of heavy metals. Some of these heavy metals though needed by plants in minute concentration are usually deleterious to the plants when they exceed certain threshold concentrations. Aside the harmful effects heavy metals pose to plant growth which can lead to a shortage in the food supply; a major problem with heavy metals contamination of land used for agricultural purpose is the ability of some plants to accumulate heavy metals which often leads to its biomagnification in humans and animals. Ingestion of heavy metals contaminated foods is unsafe having lots of attendant health problems such as gastrointestinal discomfort/disorder, nausea, puking, diarrhoea, pulmonary fibrosis, renal dysfunction and cancer in some extreme situations. Humans are admonished to eat their food as medicine, this becomes worrisome and difficult to achieve when food supply and safety are threatened by environmental contaminants.