Assessment of grain loss due to insect pest during storage for small-scale farmers of Kebbi

Abstract

Grain storage losses due to insect pests have been a serious problem threatens the livelihood of small-scale farmers. Sampling and inspection of grain stores provide important information that is useful in identifying and managing insects problems associated with grain storage. A survey of sampling farmers' grain stores was conducted in three geo-political regions (Central, North and South) of Kebbi state to gain a better understanding of the insect pest species and the impending associated problems they cause in farmers grain stores, and to help farmers with new approach (VDS) for assessing grain damage by themselves and compare the precision of the new approach with conventional approach in assessing grain weight loss. The findings of this research indicate that the VDS method is comparable (r 2 = 0.76; t=14.19, df=147, p<0.001) with conventional method of assessing weight loss and can be used as a rapid method of assessing the degree of damage to grain and proportional loss for sorghum, millet and threshed maize. The most commonly found insect was T. castaneum, followed by R. dominica. Sorghum significantly (χ 2 = 230.62, df = 12, p < 0.003).had the highest mean number of insect species, and the highest number of insects of each species, mainly T. castaneum (10.1±0.83) than found in millet (4.0±0.78), and maize (7.9±0.78). Threshed sorghum stored in storerooms in the south significantly suffered most weigh loss than all other types of grain stored in both granaries and storerooms in all regions. This study highlights the groups most in need of help with insect control.