Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa lose grain to insect pests during storage. To reduce these losses, several storage technologies are available for sale in East Africa; but only a few are marketed in West Africa. We assessed the performance of four types of hermetic bags (SuperGrainbagTM, AgroZ® bag, EVALTM, and Purdue Improved Crop Storage-PICSTM bags), as well as an insecticide-treated woven bag (ZeroFly®), and a polypropylene (PP) woven bag. The trials sought to determine if these technology packages prevent losses of insect-infested maize purchased in local markets in northern Benin. After seven months of storage, we found that maize stored in hermetic bags did not suffer further damage or lose weight due to insects. By contrast, grain stored in insecticide-treated and regular PP woven bags had weight losses of 6.3% and 10.3%, respectively. Grain moisture content of maize kept in hermetic bags remained unchanged during the 7-month storage period. However, moisture content decreased by about 30% in insecticide-treated and PP woven bags due to the prevailing dry environmental conditions. Farmers and development agencies in the Sahel can use and/or recommend these hermetic technologies to reduce maize grain storage losses due to insects.
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