A Survey of Farmers' Perceptions on Maize and Sorghum Storage Duration and Level of Pest Infestations in the Case of Two Selected Districts of Jimma Zone, Ethiopia (original) (raw)
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Maize is the most important staple food and cash crops providing calories for the consumers and income for the traders in Ethiopia. However, insect pests, both in the field and in storage have been seriously threatened its productions and yields and consequently, harm food security poor farmers. Study to determine level of infestation major insect pests and the associated damage and loss in four traditional storages over three storage season was conducted in southern Ethiopia in the years 2013/2014 and 2015/2016. The result obtained indicated that, significantly (P < 0.05) higher mean level of infestation major insect pests (48-66 and 84-134), and the associated percentage grain damage (58.75 and 72.25%), weight loss (42.65 and 58.04) and germination loss (60 and 84%) of stored maize due to insect pests were observed in all four of farmers traditional storage methods tested in 6 months and 9 months periods, respectively than in 3 months period. Of these higher level of infestation, and the associated percentage grain damage and losses, relatively the maximums were occurred in Polyethylene sac, followed by in living house and Store room, while relatively minimums were happened in Gotera outdoor. Mean level of infestation, and the associated percentage grain damage, weight loss and germination loss were also found to be increased (P < 0.05) significantly as periods of the storage increased from 3 to 6 and 9 months period in all traditional storage methods tested. Thus, all traditional storages tested were in efficient to provide sufficient protection of grains against insect pests, indicating urgent need for designing management strategies.
Assessing storage insect pests and post-harvest loss of maize in major producing areas of Ethiopia
International Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Technology, 2021
The survey was conducted for three years from 2018 to 2020 cropping seasons in four regions, Amahara, Oromia, SNNP and Benishangul Gumuz, to identify storage insect pests and to assess post-harvest loss of maize in major producing areas Ethiopia. All the collected data were analyzed by using the SPSS software and difference among means were also compared. A total of 280 farmers fi eld were surveyed. 98% of the surveyed farmers used traditional storage structures. Sitophilus zeamais was occurred with a dominant mean number 120, 115 & 116 in Asosa, west Gojam & Hawasa areas, respectively. High mean 31.84% of grains damaged was recorded in the sample collected from Hawasa whereas, low mean 6.03% in the sample collected from Buno Bedele areas. High mean 18.00% of weight losses was recorded in the samples collected from Hawasa. The majority 64% of the surveyed farmers stored their grains for more than eight months. The mean number of weevils, weight loss and grain damage showed an increasing trend as the storage periods increased because of most of the farmers stored their maize with husk and/or unshelled in the house; store with cobs in bare ground which favors moisture development and temperature increment in the store. From this survey, it can be concluded that most of the surveyed farmers used traditional storage structures, stored their grains either shelled or unshelled, heap with stalk in the fi eld for a longer period and used insecticides for the control maize weevils. These insecticides have harmful effect on the environment and human health. Therefore, uses of hermetic storage technology can be suggested to the farmers for, reducing weight loss, grains damage, use of insecticides and providing appropriate grains quality.
Crop Protection, 2007
Survey were undertaken in five zones of Oromiya and Amhara regional states, Ethiopia from February to March 2018 to investigate farmers' status, knowledge, major chickpea production constraints and insect pest management practices of chickpea. The survey involved 293 randomly taken farmers, who are interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Chickpea insect pests were considered as the main, among production constraints of chickpea by most of the interviewed farmers in Ethiopia. The majority of the farmers' responded that Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is the most prevalent insect pests of chickpea under field condition and Callosobruchus chinensis (L.) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) in storage. Development Agents (DAs) were the top pest advisory service providers in the current study. A conventional insecticide (namely; Lambda-cyhalotrin and Dimethoate) for the control of H. armigera was the most commonly used pest management methods. Moreover, Two times insecticide applications per cropping season were the most frequent, deployed by most of the interviewed farmers followed by cultural pest management practices. Use of biological control and resistant chickpea varieties against major insect pests were low to negligible in the current survey study in the area. The majority of the farmers began control decision when H. armigera larval stages were smaller and they did not consider larval number per chickpea plant for the decision. These results will be used to formulate future effective and sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) in chickpea for Ethiopian farmers emphasizing ecologically and economically-based approaches.
2018
Maize (Zea mays L.) is a major staple food and feed sources for millions of people in Ethiopia in general, and Shashogo and Sankura districts of Hadiya and Silte zones, in particular. However, insect pests, both in the field and in the storage seriously threatened its production and consequently, affect food security of the poor farmers. The most important of these have been proven to be Lepidopteran stalk borer and Coleopteran maize weevil. However, no or few studies were conducted on indigenous methods and practices used by farmers in storing and protecting maize grains, as well as the species composition and the status of insect pests of stored maize and the associated losses in the study area. Thus, the survey using face to face semi-structured interviews and farmer's participatory discussions were conducted in six major maize growing localities of Hadiya and Silte zones of Southern Ethiopia for documenting various indigenous practices and methods used by farmers in protection of their grains from insect pests at different storage periods (3, 6 and 9 months) in 2013/2014 and 2015/2016, using a nested design. Moreover, level of infestation, distribution and the status of insect pests of stored maize, and the associated damage and loss in four farmer's traditional storage methods were conducted in six localities or peasant-associations for three storage periods (3, 6 and 9 months) in the same year. Besides, laboratory studies were conducted on botanicals, inert dusts, varietal resistance and their integration in the management of maize weevil during the period/ year of 2016/2017. The survey result demonstrated that farmers harvested maize in between November and January. Hand picking was the most commonly used harvesting method. Maize harvesting was commonly done in December. Farmers used different traditional storage methods (facilities) and store their maize either shelled or unshelled. However, most farmers (≥ 82%) store their maize grain unshelled for 7-9 months. Most farmers (52.7%) used outdoor Gotera for storing their maize grain. Through the survey, over thirty arthropods were recorded in stored maize grains from the study area. Of these, nineteen were primary and secondary pests, seven were mold feeders and five were natural enemies. The 19 primary and secondary pests include Sitophilus zeamais (Motschulsky), Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier), Sitophilus oryzae (Linnaeus), Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), Tribolium confusum (Jacquelin duVal), Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens), Cryptolestes pusillus (Schonherr), Rhyzopertha dominica (Fabricius) Oryzaephilus surinamensis (Linnaeus), Tribolium destructor (Uyttenb.), Palorus subdepressus (Wollaston), P. ratzeburgii (Wissmann), Ephestia cautella (Walker), Acarus siro (Linnaeus), Plodia interpunctella (Hubner), Gnatocerus cornutus (Fabricius), Tribolium audax (Halstead), C. iii pusilloides (Steel and Howe) and Prostephanus truncatus (Horn). Of these primary and secondary pests, S. zeamais, S. cerealella, S. oryzae, T. castaneum, T. confusum, C. ferrugineus, C. pusillus and R. dominica were found to be the most abundant, and frequently occurring and were found to be the major pests. Insects such as O. surinamensis, T. destructor, P. subdepressus, P. ratzeburgii, E. cautella, Acarus siro, P. interpunctella and G. cornutus were found to be the next abundant, and frequently appearing and were found to be intermediate pests. However, T. audax, C. pusilloides and P. truncates were found to be the least abundant, least frequently occurring and were minor pests. Besides, from seven species of mold feeders recorded, Carpophilus dimidiatus was the most commonly occurring and the most important, followed by Liposcelis sp. and L. entomophila. But, Typhaea stercorea, C. freeman, C. hemipterus and Brachypeplus sp. were found to be the least commonly appearing and the least important. Among the five species of natural enemies recorded, one species of predatory mite, Cheyletus sp., two species of hymenopteran parasitic wasps; Anisopteromalus calandrae and Cephalonomia tarsalis and coleopteran Staphylinidea were the most abundant and frequently occurring. However, Dactylosternum abdominale recorded rarely. Significantly (P < 0.05) higher level of insect pest infestation, grain damage and losses were recorded in all tested traditional storage methods, the highest being in polyethylene sac, followed by storage in the living house and store room, while the minimum was from in the Gotera out door. Hence, various traditional methods and practices used by farmers were found to be inefficient to provide sufficient protection of grain against insect pests. Thus, there is a need to look for alternative control methods such as varietal screening, botanical control and the integration of compatible control options are paramount importance which are the main focal areas of this PhD thesis. Accordingly, from varietal screening study involving twenty one maize grain varieties, 6 varieties such as Melkasa-6Q, MH-138Q, SPRH, BHQPY-545, AMH-760Q and Gibat (AMH-851) were found to be resistant. Hence, these resistance varieties could be used and adopted as ecologically sound and effective management method to reduce loss by S. zeamais under subsistence farmer's storages. However, their mechanisms of resistance need further study. Besides, the laboratory studies also confirmed that all of the different traditional or bio-rational methods tested were significantly (P < 0.05) effective in protection stored maize grain against maize weevil. Of which, integration two botanicals (C. aurea and M. ferruginea) and two colored inert dusts (red and white) with the top three resistant varieties; Melkasa-6Q, MH-138Q and SPRH were the most effective, followed by botanicals and inert dusts, respectively at the rates of 5 and 10%. However, their evaluation regarding their effect on human being, natural enemies and cost effectiveness under subsistence farmer's storage conditions is necessary before wide implementation of the outcomes these studies.
Maize is the primary staple crop grown, nearly in all agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia. Despite the steady production of maize, post-harvest losses of maize remained a serious challenge. In Ethiopia, traditionally farmers use different storages structure for their grain. Gombisa is one of above ground storage structure used by most of farmers. However, those traditional storage structures were not effective in protecting the grain from insect, microbial infestation and environmental factors. Farmers have indigenous knowledge of storage management practices to cop up with this post-harvest loss. The traditional wisdom and methods of storage can protect commodities from insect infestation for substantially longer periods. Among the farmers' practices; sun drying, use of botanicals, hanging over fire, mixing with wood ash, mixing with partially ground chillies (hot pepper), and storing unshelled maize were some of the storage practice proven effective in minimizing storage infestation.
2021
This study was designed to assess major insects and occurrence of rodent infestation in stored grain in two districts of south western Ethiopia. Omo Neda and Bako Tibe districts were purposively selected supported their potential growing of maize and sorghum grain, and high postharvest losses in these selected areas. A total of 160 farmers’ stores from both districts were randomly selected. The grain samples used in the present study were stored for 5 different time periods, ranging from 1 to 5 months and from the same farmers’ stores, to identify storage insect pest and to determine grain weight loss and insect damage. The results showed that the dominant insect species in maize and sorghum grains were weevils (Sitophilus spp.) followed by the Angoumois gelechiid (Sitotroga cerealella Olivier) and flour beetles (Tribolium spp.). High numbers of insects were recorded from both plastered and un-plastered gombisa and polypropylene bags. Additionally, the amount of every insect pest in...
Grain samples were collected from 179 on-farm traditional underground pit stores found in agro pastoralist villages. The samples were collected from four district namely Babille, Gurusm, Jigjiga and Awbarre districts of Ethiopian Somali provenance. The study was conducted to assess the occurrence and damage related to storage insect pests in traditional grain pit stores. Data on relative abundance, insect grain damage and germination percentage for each district were summarized and subjected to descriptive statistics analysis and mean and standard deviation were performed. According to the result, all assessed grain stores exhibited with significant infestation with storage insect pests. Over all finding indicted that maize weevil (S zeamais), angoumois grain moth (S cerealella) with mean relative abundance of 41.25 and 28.52% respectively others including flour beetle (T castenum), flat grain beetles (C ferugineus) and Saw-toothed grain beetle (O surinamensis) were also commonly recorded in all assessed districts. Maximum grain damage in sorghum was recorded from Awbarre district 29.27%. The highest grain damage in maize was recorded in Babile (33.88%), Gursum 32.47% and Jigjiga 30.86%. Sorghum and maize grain stored for at least 8-9 month showed mean germination percentage of 72.81% and 66.96% respectively.
Food Science and Quality Management
This study was designed to assess farmers grain storage containers in relation to buildup of storage pests in three selected districts of southwestern Ethiopia. One district was selected from each zone based on the production potential of selected grain crops such as maize, sorghum, wheat and faba bean. Then, 25 households were randomly selected from each district to collect stored grain samples used for the identification of storage insect pests, and grain samples were taken from different storage structures, including un-plastered and plastered gombisa, gumbi, and polypropylene sacks. The results showed that the dominant insect species in maize, sorghum and wheat grains were weevils (Sitophilus spp.) followed by the Angoumois grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella Olivier) and flour beetles (Tribolium spp.), while the bean weevil (Zabrotes spp.) was the only species recovered from stored faba beans. High numbers of insects were recorded from both plastered and un-plastered gombisa, gumbi and polypropylene sacks. In addition, the number of each insect pest in each storage method recorded per 100 g-1 grain increased as the duration of grain storage increased. The results of this study also demonstrated that most of the farmers in the study areas perceived insect pests and rodents as the main postharvest pests causing considerable losses of stored grains. The poor storage systems of farmers predispose the stored grains to insect and rodent attacks. Thus, there is a need to train farmers on storage hygiene and to develop and disseminate efficient grain storage facilities to reduce losses in grain stores. Moreover, further studies need an improved pest detection method, such as the use of bioacoustics tools, to manage pests associated with grain stores.
Article Info Maize grain storage practices involve traditional storage structures, which was largely ineffective in the protecting of the stored products from deterioration. Maize grain storage losses due to insect pests have been a serious problem the livelihood of small-scale farmers. The experiment was conducted between December 2017 and May 2018 at the Bako, Ethiopia to study the effectiveness of traditional (Gombisa, Sack) and Hermetic bag storage structures. The infestation of insectsto storedmaize grain was determined forT0, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 months of storage periods. The experimental design was arranged in 3x4factorial fashions. The treatments were three storage types (Gombisa, sack and Hermetic bag), one variety of maize (Bako hybrid-661) and storage periods (T0, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6) months. The collected data were analyzed statistically using Generalized Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS and means that were significantly different were separated using Least Significant Difference (LSD). The number of insects, dead or alive, was not recorded in the first two storage and increased significantly (P<0.05) with storage periods. Maximum number 85/kg of alive Sitophilus zeamais was recorded at the end of six months. Maximum numbers17.7/kg of deadSitophiluszeamais was recorded at the last six months of storage. Sitophilus zeamais was the most dominant insect pest and records 84.3/kg in gombisa in the six months of storage. In this finding Sitophilus zeamais was the major storage insect pests followed by Sitophilus granurius. Therefore, gombisa and sack storages were inadequate for protecting stored maize from insect pests and fungal attacks. Overall, the hermetic bag storage can protect insect infestation and fungal development and consequently maintains seed viability and nutritional content during storage without use of insecticides.
Stored-grain losses and management practices among smallholder cereal farmers in Northern Ethiopia
International Journal of Pest Management, 2020
Storage pests are a major concern to smallholder farmers in Africa south of the Sahara since their livelihoods heavily depend on subsistence agriculture. These farmers depend mainly on traditional grain storage materials and pest management methods, both of which are generally ineffective against pests. Here we provide insights into stored-grain losses suffered by highland and lowland farmers in northern Ethiopia using a survey conducted during the 2016/2017 cropping season. A total of 109 household heads were interviewed and about half were visited for observation of grain storage materials. Irrespective of agroecology, the predominant stored-grain pests were weevils, rats, and termites. Both highland and lowland farmers stored grains in woven polythene sacks and dung made barrels indoors, and in barns outdoors. Some lowland farmers stored grains in underground pits outdoors. While highland farmers suffered an 8.03% average annual grain loss to the storage pests, the lowland farmers suffered a 12.18% average annual grain loss, which was significant (p ¼ 0.007). The multiple linear regression analysis indicated significantly higher stored-grain losses in (i) lowland than highland farmers, (ii) households with heads holding village administrative positions than households with heads not holding any village administrative position, (iii) households storing grains for an additional month than households that did not and (iv) households storing grains in other indoor storage materials than households storing grains in woven polythene bags with plastic liners inside (p < 0.05). Households with one more family member working on the farm and household heads who had attended training on pest management suffered significantly lower losses (p < 0.05). Innovative storage methods and environmentally benign management options are recommended.