Gabriele Stoll
Natural Crop Protection in the Tropics
Letting Information Come to Life
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Methods of Storage Protection
Principles of Preventive Storage
Protection
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Methods of Storage Protection
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Principles of Preventive Storage
Protection
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Insect damage in stored grains and pulses
may amount up to 10–40% in countries where modern storage
technologies have not been introduced. The most important
factors determining storage losses are:
Variety and quality of stored
produce (relative humidity of grains, degree of maturation)
Type of store, maintenance and
duration
Climatic factors depending on site
and season
Infestation occurring already in
the field
Spectrum of insects (pest,
beneficial, population dynamics)
Protecting stored products already
starts before actual storage. Just like in IPM for field crops,
the protection of stored
products should be approached in an integrated manner. And just
like in field IPM, the key to successful protection of stored
products is knowledge, diversity of measures and informed
decision-making.
Knowledge and intelligent solutions are
needed on the insects, both pests and beneficials, and their
life cycles. This knowledge should not be limited to the
storage system itself but should also include the field level.
Often the infestation with storage pests already begins in the
field. Furthermore, continuous and active learning and
experimenting is important – and increasingly so. Small
farmers have to improve their cost-benefit ratio and they want
to reduce labour requirements and hard work. Knowledge and
intelligent solutions are increasingly important components in
the overall management of their work.
Using a diverse array of preventive
measures can already create an unfavourable environment for an
insect pest to build up its population. Thus, protection
against storage pests cannot rest on curative measures alone.
It is important to know which of the different agricultural
practices play which kind of role in preventive pest control
and which ones are key measures in a given situation –
both at preventive and curative level.
In order to make competent, informed
decisions, farmers must be able to judge the potential and the
risk of the measures applied. Regular observation of the state
of the stored goods helps the farmer to know if these are still
safe or if measures have to be taken and which ones. Informed
decision-making also means to act on time.
The printed version contains more
information about the following themes:
Stages of integrated storage control
1. Field
-Selection of variety
-Harvest time
2. Preparation for storage
-Drying
-Sorting
-Dividing the produce
3. Storage
-Site selection
-Storage hygiene
-Monitoring & surveillance
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