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Cereal grain losses are high in sub-Saharan Africa countries, Tanzania inclusive.
Information on protection of these losses is mainly reported for maize and other cereals
but it is limited on bean, particularly for Kilosa district. This study was carried in Kilosa
district, where by two wards (Malolo and Lumuma) were used to establish effective
storage technology for bean storage and measure the level of understanding on post-
harvest management. To measure effectiveness storage technology, different factors were
put into consideration, e.g., ability to maintain storage moisture content of bean, ability to
reduce bean damage by weevil (bruchids), price, availability and challenges on the use of
particular technology. Beans from 20 farmers were kept in three different storage
technologies mainly; Metal Silo, Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) and
Polypropylene bag (polypropylene bag), and stored for six months. Household survey data
showed that there was little knowledge and limited awareness of the community regarding
post-harvest management and the mycotoxin problem. The mean percentage bean damage
were 23.6, 15.2 and 6.4% for polypropylene bag, silo and PICS, respectively. Overall
results showed that PICS was the most effective in terms of beans damage reduction, price
affordability and availability. During storage there were some few observations like
weakness of PICS bag that made bruchids able to make holes on the two layers of
polyethylene and facilitate air entrance. None had received any formal or informal training
on postharvest management. The study recommends post-harvest management training of
agricultural extensions officers who after the training disseminated the knowledge to
farmers. Extension of the hermetic storage technology to beans seems essential. For metal
silo technology to be widely adopted subsidy looks necessary to reduce its price. |
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