A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s in Life Sciences of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
This study was carried out to create a marketing model that integrate maize store-time with five storage methods namely Perdue Improved Cowpeas Storage bags (PICS), Metal Drums, Kihenge, Polyethylene bags with insecticides and Polyethylene bags without insecticide. Trials were established following a randomized complete block design with four replications in Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions, and treatments were monitored for weevil‟s infestation for six months consecutive. The results showed PICS bag was the most efficient storage method in minimizing insect damaged kernels as it only contributed to 1% of the insect damaged kernels, while other methods such as Metal drum, Kihenge, Polyethylene bag with insecticide and Polyethylene bag without insecticide resulted in 4%, 23 %, 29%, and 43% insect damaged kernels respectively. The correlation matrix showed similar results with coefficients of correlation of ‒0.378, ‒0.272, 0.045, 0.037 and 0.516 respectively. With regards to store-time PICS bag and Metal drum had the lowest number of insect damage throughout six-month store-time. Other methods such as Polyethylene bag with insecticide was able to keep the kernel insect free only for three months while Polyethylene bag without insecticide kept grains free of weevil infestation only for one month. The results also indicated that there was a significant relationship between marketing channels and income gained by the household with P-value = 0.04. Average store-time for the majority of the respondents was six months. This study recommends not more than seven month store-time for household income optimizations.