Drying and storage systems for maize at farm/village level: a case study modelled in S. W. Nigeria

Abstract

An inventory of drying and storage systems for maize in the humid tropics showed that there are two main types of traditional structures, one with solid walls found in the dryer areas, where a distinct dry season follows the drying of the crops and one with open sided walls that allows free movement of air through the crop, in more humid areas. Each of these structures can store products successfully if minor modification are made on them. The main problem found in the model country (S. W. Nigeria) is of maize. The farmer can solve this problem by leaving his crop in the field to dry to the required moisture levels of about 18 to 20%. This process exposes the crop to high field infestation resulting in high storage losses of about 12.3% insect damage, 10.2% fungal growth and 5.7% weight loss. Improvements on storage have shown the above percentage losses can be reduced to 5.6% for insect damage, 5.3 % for fungal growth and 0.3% for weight loss. Maize can be harvested at moisture content above 20% and dried within a period of 10 days by the use of artificial dryer. Alternatively improvements can be done on already existing traditional drying and storage structures by the use of extension service. Comparison between the two alternatives was done in a form of a feasibility study. Based on the above information of losses, benefit-cost (B/C0 ratio worked out as 0.56 for extension service and 0.73 for a dryer. The B/C ratio is valuable in comparing the two alternatives because the benefit are the same. Both projects are not cost-covering and it seems that the dryer is more profitable than the extension programme. However on the long run the benefits for the farmer are 1.5 times larger than the costs in the case of an extension programme, therefore this project is recommended by the team