On-farm performance and assessment of farmers’ perceptions of hermetic bags for farm-stored wheat and maize in northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Wheat and maize farmers in Ethiopia seldom adopted hermetic storage technologies which can substantially reduce post-harvest losses. Two on-farm storage experiments and a perception survey were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the PICS bag and Super GrainPro bag and to assess farmers’ perceptions towards the utility of the technologies in two districts of West Gojjam, Northwest of Ethiopia in the years 2016 and 2017. Results showed that live adult weevil densities in hermetic storage bags such as PICS bag and Super GrainPro bag were below five insects per kg of maize after four months of storage. In wheat, there was no live weevil prevalence in hermetic storage bags after four months of storage. Weight loss wheat and maize stored in airtight bags was maintained at <1.0%. A majority of farmers (95.0%, N = 80) perceived that the hermetic bags are effective against weevils, and 87.3% (N = 80) had the tendency to use airtight bags in the future. Farmers’ use of PICS bags in the past had a positive influence on their interest in the future use of hermetic containers. In conclusion, the present study showed that hermetic storage bags are practical under on-farm conditions in Ethiopia. Therefore, we recommend the extensive promotion of the technologies and increasing their local availability.