Abstract
Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky is the most important insect pest of stored maize in tropical regions. The objective of this study was to determine the practicality of periodic physical disturbance on S. zeamais mortality and its adoption by smallholder farmers in developing countries. In this experiment, treatments and control were arranged in a randomized block design with three replications and three storage times in three regions of Tanzania. Region was used as the blocking variable. A total of 108 clean 20-L plastic containers were each loaded with 10 kg of fresh white dent corn and 0.50 kg of maize infested with S. zeamais. For the treatment, containers were disturbed twice a day, whereas for the controls the containers were not disturbed until the end of storage. The overall mortality rate (%) after 30, 60, and 90 days of storage were 88%, 96%, and 98%, respectively. A statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) was observed for the number of live S. zeamais between the control and experimental treatments. Additionally, the number of live S. zeamais in the treatment significantly decreased as storage time increased. This study shows the potential of a feasible, simple, affordable, and effective method of protecting maize grain for small-holder farmers in developing countries without using chemicals.
Highlights
Maize is the most important cereal and cash crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and is part of the staple diet for over 1.2 billion people in developing countries [1]
In other words, compared with the control, a significant increase of mortality rate for S. zeamais was observed in the disturbed treatments
Overall mortality rates of S. zeamais were determined by combining the mortality rates of all farmers in the same district
Summary
Maize is the most important cereal and cash crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and is part of the staple diet for over 1.2 billion people in developing countries [1]. Post-harvest losses (PHL) of cereal grain in SSA remain significantly higher (5%–40%) [3]. The exact magnitude of losses varies greatly from region to region and country to country and depends on several factors such as length of storage, drying and storage methods, storage structures, and pest damage [4]. In Tanzania, PHL of maize has been estimated to be between 15% and 26% [4]. The greatest portions of these losses occur in the field and during storage and are mainly due to insect infestation. The most economically important and widely occurring
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