Chapter 5 - Grain storage in developing countries

Abstract

Agriculture is the main economic activity for the most of the population of developing countries, accounting for a quarter of gross domestic product. Agriculture is mainly dominated by smallholder farmers, with cereal grain constituting the bulk of food production. Cereal grain is a seasonal crop often cultivated once per year, while demand is evenly spread throughout the year; thus, grain is stored to ensure a constant supply. During storage, grains are vulnerable to attacked from several stored-product insect pests, and these are the main cause of postharvest losses and food insecurity in developing countries. The magnitude of losses varies significantly from crop to crop and region to region. The annual grain losses vary from 20% to 50% for developing countries. Postharvest handling, poor infrastructure, weather variability, and biotic factors often aggravate such losses. A large percentage of food grain (25%–40%) in developing countries is stored in traditional structures. Traditional grain storage structures are rudimentary, inexpensive, and safe. Traditional structures used for grain storage can be either temporary or long-term storage facilities. Moreover, in many parts of developing countries traditional storage structures have been replaced by modern storage structures such as admixing grain with synthetic pesticides, fumigation, storage bags like sacks, Purdue Improved Crop Storage bags, and metal silos. In addition, other methods such as physical disturbance, have been promoted as alternative storage methods.