Assessment of Maize Grain Storage Practices and Pests in Baka Dawula Ari District, South Omo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Maize plays a significant role in human nutrition in general and serves as a staple food in most parts of Ethiopia. However, maize crop in storage is constrained by a variety of pests in Ethiopia and other sub-Saharan African countries. This study was aimed at surveying the traditional maize storage practices and the efficacies of the storage structures in protecting the crop in the storage and investigating the species composition of relevant pests in selected Kebeles of Baka Dawula Ari District in southern Ethiopia. The study was conducted in four purposively selected Kebeles. A total of three maize cobs were taken from each type of storage structure in three replications from every study Kebele. The associated pests were collected from the samples, identified and their abundances were determined. Data on the efficacy of the storage practices, the level of the maize grain damage, and the weight loss were analysed by Proc ANOVA of SAS software (version 9). It was found that the levels of maize grain damage and loss were significantly different (p<0.05) among the storage structures in such a way that hanging over smoke was known to be the most effective in protecting the maize grains against pest attack. Likewise, the level of maize grain infestation varied significantly (p<0.05) among the study Kebeles in general, in which Bako Kebele exhibited a minimum level of pest infestation. The pest species found infesting the maize grain were members of the order Coleoptera and Lepidoptera with an Acarine species and an unidentified mold. The Larger Grain Borer, Prostephanus truncatus was found damaging the maize grain severely. P. truncatus was recorded infesting crops in Ethiopia for the first time. It is concluded that maize grain is severely damaged in the storage, mainly by the coleopteran pests already known to be cosmopolitan in Ethiopia. The introduction of the new pest may further exacerbate the already serious maize storage pest problem. It is recommended that intervention of the extension workers to introduce modern practices of maize grain storage facilities and management shall be implemented in addition to encouraging the use of smoke as an indigenous technique by the local people. Further study on the geographical distribution of the Larger Grain Borer and awareness creation about this newly introduced pest is also recommended.