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Storage solution preserves crops
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Some of the world’s poorest people could increase their supply of a food staple and improve their region’s economic standing, thanks to a Purdue University research and Extension education effort funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Purdue entomologist Larry Murdock discovered that cowpea weevils can be controlled if the crop is properly stored. A Purdue team will help Africans increase their supply of this food staple and improve their region’s economic standing, thanks to an $11.4 million Gates Foundation grant. |
With a one-time cost estimated at just over $3 per household, farmers in West and Central Africa will be able to better protect cowpeas, an important food and cash crop. The foundation awarded $11.4 million to Purdue Agriculture to help people in 10 African nations learn how to safely store the crop.
Cowpeas, better known in America as “black-eyed” peas, are marketed by an estimated 3.4 million households in those countries. The legume is one of the few grain crops that can be profitably exported by farmers in this dry, resource-poor part of Africa. Unfortunately, a pest called the “cowpea weevil” can consume nearly all the cowpeas stored on farms.
Purdue entomologist Larry Murdock developed an easy-to-use, inexpensive triple-bagging method to store cowpeas after his research showed that the pests became inactive in airtight plastic bags. After depleting oxygen, the weevils couldn’t feed or reproduce, so little damage occurred.
“Because of the storage problems, farmers are often forced to sell their cowpeas at harvest, when prices are at their lowest levels,” says Joan Fulton, agricultural economist and project director. “If we teach them how to store the cowpeas properly, they can take advantage of higher prices later in the year.”
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