Comparative Study of Cowpea Storage Technologies in the Sahel Region of Niger

摘要

Cowpea farmers in the West Africa lose a significant portion of their crop during storage due to insects (cowpea weevil). To help farmers deal with this issue, we tested several storage technologies including hermetic (SuperGrainbagTM, AgroZ® bag, EVALTM, and Purdue Improved Crop Storage-PICSTM bags), an insecticide-treated woven bag (ZeroFly®), and a polypropylene (PP) woven bag. After 8 months of storage, we observed that all hermetic bags were effective at maintain the quality of cowpea. No further damage and weight loss was observed in grain stored in hermetic bags; germination decreased modestly, by a maximum of 16%. However, grain stored in ZeroFly® and woven bags continued to deteriorate during the storage period due to continued insect population growth, resulting in weight loss of about 25%. Loss in germination was more serious in cowpea stored in the ZeroFly® (37.0%) and woven bags (28.8%) than in hermetic bags. Farmers and development agencies in the West Africa (particularly in the Sahel) can use and/or recommend these hermetic technologies to greatly reduce cowpea storage losses due to insects.