Abstract
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. Keywords: Stored grain insect pests underground pit storage system
Highlights
Post-harvest losses are one of the major causes of food insecurity in the developing world
Higher S. cerealella relative abundance was observed in Jigjiga which was 37% followed by Babble and Gursum (Table 1), the lowest was observed in Awu-barre district
Minor but potential storage insect pests T. castaneum, C. ferugineus and O. surinamensis were recorded in comparably low relative abundance in all assessed grain stores
Summary
Post-harvest losses are one of the major causes of food insecurity in the developing world. In many developing countries, including in Ethiopia, grain storage practices involve traditional structures, which are largely ineffective in the prevention of deterioration of stored products [1]. The majority of framers in Ethiopia (93.3%) use traditional storage containers that exposes stored grains to storage insect pest, mold and other lose factors [2]. Among the key constraints to improving food security in Africa are losses resulting from poor post-harvest management of grains [3]. Deterioration of stored grains results from the interactions of several factors such as physical, chemical and biological variables existing the overall chains from production to consumptions [2]. Deterioration of grain due to infestations of insects, mites, and fungi is the main post-harvest factor affecting the nutritional quality and marketability of stored grain
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