The Status of Maize Storage Pests and their Management Practices in Gindeberet District, West Shoa
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Date
2019-09-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Maize (Zea may L.) is one of the most important cereal crop cultivated in the World and it constituted one of the major diets of millions of people. Males constitute the majority of smallholder farmers in providing and managing a larger part of farming activities. Use of hybrid maize varieties has potential to improve household food security and income. Maize varieties traditionally grown by farmers in a particular area have evolved some degree of resistance to local pest populations. Some factors such as prolonged harvesting time, grain maturity, husk cover, distance of the old storage and maize variety highly expose stored maize grain to storage insect pests. Farmers were trained on prompt harvesting, separating of damaged grain from undamaged during storage and cleaning of stores before storing the new produce. The objective of this study to know the status of stored maize grain insect pests and their management. The sources of data were both primary and secondary sources. Data were analyzed using a computer software, excel 2011. Majority of the respondent farmers were males (87.63%), while females were only 12.3%7. Most farmers attended primary school (48.45%) and secondary school (8.25%). About 36.08% of the respondents‟ haven`t gone to formal education. The findings of this research indicated, majority of the farmers participating in farming were males with less formal education, practice traditional pest control measures when storing maize particularly when the grow hybrid varieties greater than traditional types. Further studies on storage maize insect pests and their managements need to be continued.
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Keywords
Pest Management, Storage Structure, Damage Grain, Storage Insect Pest, Maize Variety