MODIFICATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF STORAGE FACILITY FOR HARICOT BEAN AROUND ADAMA DISTRICT

Abstract

Haricotbean is an important legum in Ethiopia and mainly used for the preparation of diffrent food products. Some green haricot beans before full maturity are consumed as vegetables and being used as exporte commudity. Quantitative and qualitative haricot losses due to traditional methods of storage are enormous. A problem associated with postharvest losses of haricot beans, especially during storage in the major producing area of Adama District was dealt with. A field survey was carried out in randomly selected six (6) villages and thirty-six (36) farmers in the Rift Valley region around Adama town where haricot bean grows extensively. The comparative study was conducted at Adama Science and Technology University on the performance of improved metal bin and polythene sacks storages using randomized complete block design in triplicates. Various pests attacked the haricot bean during storage. The respondent farmers from the village confirmed that pests like insects, weevils, rodents, birds, molds, and fungus caused a significant amount of postharvest losses to the crop. The worst attack of the pests was occurring during the storage period. Haricot bean was stored in improved metal bin and polythene sacks for 12 months. Crop temperature, moisture content, germination rate, weight loss, crude ash content, crude protein content, crude fiber content, and thousand kernels weight were the parameters used to evaluate the performance of storage structures. Temperature, moisture content, and weight loss of the crop were increased with storage duration. Germination rate, the nutrient quality, and thousand kernels' weight were negatively affected as the storage duration was prolonged. A combined mean analysis of variance across storage structure and storage duration has indicated a significant difference at the (p<0.05 and p<0.001) among metal bin and polythene sacks storage structure at a given parameter.