Nigerian Company Licenses Purdue Crop Storage System That Deters Insects

Farmers in West and Central African nations could benefit economically, socially
and nutritionally using a crop storage system developed by researchers at Purdue
University and licensed to Kano-based Lela Agro Industries Nigeria Ltd.

cowpea

The Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) system was developed by Larry Murdock,
professor of entomology in the Purdue College of Agriculture, and scientists in
Cameroon. The research was funded by a USAID program and supported by Purdue's
International Programs in Agriculture.

PICS originally was developed to store cowpeas, or black-eyed peas, which are
eaten in storage by cowpea weevils. The system reduces the amount of damage the
weevils inflict upon stored cowpeas.

"Cowpea weevils have an amazing reproductive capacity and can destroy any store
of grain many times over in less than a year. A single female cowpea weevil can
produce 60 male and female offspring in one month or less. In another month
there are 1,800 cowpea weevils and 54,000 the month after that," Murdock said.

The system uses hermetically sealed bags, which means they are airtight.

"The keys to the success of PICS are that insect reproduction is essentially
stopped quickly and most eventually die of dehydration," he said.

James "Jess" Lowenberg-DeBoer, associate dean in the College of Agriculture and
director of International Programs in Agriculture, said PICS has been used
throughout the world. "PICS bags are used on a large scale in 10 African
countries with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo," he said.
"The system also has been used in Rwanda, with funding from the USAID office in
Kigali, as well as Afghanistan, Burundi, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Laos, Malawi,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe."

Moussa Maman, who grows cowpeas in the Maradi Region of Niger, has used PICS
since 2009. Before then, he lost more than 50 percent of his grain in storage
due to cowpea weevils and had to sell his harvest when prices were low.

"Now that I use PICS, I can store two or three times the quantity that I could
store before. My income also has increased two or three times," he said.

Hassan Fawaz, managing director at Lela Agro, said the company will manufacture
more than one million PICS bags in 2013, selling most in Nigeria but exporting
around 100,000 to neighboring countries. The company plans to expand production
in 2014.

"PICS bags are more effective than other bags because they are made of 80
micron-thick, high-density materials. They are more cost-effective hermetic
containers for most uses than metal drums or plastic jugs," he said.

Lela Agro also has licensed the trademarked PICS logo. Other companies
manufacture bags they claim are PICS. They will not have access to the PICS
logo, which means farmers can differentiate between them.

Tests have been conducted to determine if PICS is effective in stopping storage
insects that attack other grains. This work is being done under a grant funded
by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"We believe PICS will effectively control most insect pests of many commodities,
as long as the commodities have low moisture contents when stored," Murdock
said.
ǹ