Impact of On-Farm Storage Technologies and Storage Durations on Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Seed Health: A Comparative Study Across Diverse Agroecologies

Abstract

Polypropylene bag is inadequate to manage fungi, insect pests, and fluctuating environmental conditions on stored chickpea seed over an extended duration. The study was conducted to evaluate the combined effect of different seed storage methods and duration on chickpea seed health quality attributes under midland and highland agroecological zones. Super GrainPro (SGP) bags, Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, polypropylene bags (PPb), plastic drums (PD), and filter cake blended with seed stored in PD (PD + FC) and PPb (PPb + FC) were used for the study. Seed moisture content (SMC), fungal seed infection (SI) and fungal frequency (FF), hundred seed weight (HSW), seed damage (SD), and seed weight loss (SWL) were measured every 2 months for 6 months. The results showed that Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium were the main fungal genera associated with chickpea seed stored under different conditions. The results also revealed that hermetic bags sustained stable SMC, fungal seed infection level, and frequency for 6 storage months, whereas PPb showed a significant increase in SMC, fungal infection, and frequency over time. Seed stored in PPb showed remarkable changes in chickpea quantitative aspects after 6 storage months at the midland AEZ location. Accordingly, the average HSW decreased by 9.6%, SD increased by 113 times, and SWL increased by 37 times after 6 months at the midland AEZ storage location. The study confirms that filter cake–treated seed and hermetic bags could significantly reduce quantitative and qualitative seed loss and could maintain the seed safely for 6 storage months. Therefore, we recommend promoting these seed storage methods at the farm level to maintain healthy seed and ultimately enhance chickpea production and productivity, which is expected to promote food security in Ethiopia.