Reducing losses to maize stored on farms in East Africa using hermetic storage

Significant grain and seed losses occur during maize storage in East Africa. This is due to high ambient relative humidity, and the fact that storage ecosystems and the stored maize equilibrate with ambient moisture and temperature. The result is rapid pest multiplication and mold formation in the stored maize, leading to a high spoilage rate. This is particularly important considering that a large number of farmers store their maize in open-air storage that utilizes little or no chemical preservatives. Of these pests, the most economically important are the maize weevils, and to reduce losses, a non-chemical system that naturally eliminates them was developed. Three studies aimed at “Testing time to complete adult weevil mortality in hermetic storage”, testing the “effect of hermetic storage on maize seed germination”, and “using recycled edible oil containers for hermetic maize storage” were conducted to solve these problems. The first study found significant (p<0.0001) treatment effects. A laboratory-scale study found mean adult weevil mortality and standard error of 94.2±10.77% for hermetic treatments versus 3.1 ±4.69% for non-hermetic treatments, while a fieldscale study found 96.8±3.43% mean mortality and standard error for hermetic treatments versus 3.4±3.71%, for non-hermetic treatments. In the second study, hermetically stored (sealed) maize seeds had 98.7 to 99.5% germination rates versus 35.0 to 72.9% for non-hermetic (open-air) storage, over the 12-month seed storage period. The conclusion is that hermetic storage preserves seed viability, even when seeds are stored under ambient (atmospheric) conditions, and with weevils. In the third study, market surveys found edible oil containers available for