TY  - BK
AU  - Yubak Shoj,G.C.
AU  - Rajbhandari,N.P.|Ransom,J.K.|Adhikari,K.|Palmer,A.F.E.
ED  - Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo CIMMYT, Nepal (India)
ED  - Proceedings of a Maize Symposium
TI  - Study on post-harvest losses of maize and their management practices in the western hills of Nepal
SN  - 99933-205-1-X
U1  - 631.536 
PY  - 2002///
CY  - Kathmandu (Nepal)
PB  - NARC|CIMMYT
KW  - Agricultural resources
KW  - Maize
KW  - AGROVOC
KW  - Nepal
KW  - Pest insects
KW  - Sitophilus zeamais
KW  - Sitotroga cerealella
KW  - Storage losses
KW  - Zea mays
KW  - CIMMYT
KW  - NARC
N2  - The study was carried out to assess the losses of maize under farmer's storage conditions in the Western hills of Nepal in May 2001. The survey area included Rising Patan (551 masl) and Samung (911 masl) VDCs of Tanahun district, and Sirseni (1015 masl) and Dhurkot Rahasthal (1256 masl) VDCs of Gulmi district. Maize weevil (Sitophylus zeamays Mostschulsky), Angoumous grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella Oliv .) are major biotic agents that cause considerable losses during storage. On farm losses due to insect pests are found to be as high as 32-36%. Farmers in the survey area generally follow some sort of preventive measures using indigenous knowledge, customs and available resources to reduce the loss of maize grain. Majority of the farmers in Gulmi district do not use improved storage structures and chemical pesticides compared to Tanahun district. However, it is very interesting to note that the gross losses in storage are lower (22-24%) in Gulmi than Tanahun district (32-36%). The reason could be adoption of preventive measures effectively such as sun drying after shelling from the cobs whereas, in Tanahun majority of the farmers .'itore maize in "Kuniyu" leaving ears intact with the husk. The moisture content in such cobs is considerably higher resulting in the development of microorganisms. There is ample opportunity to reduce storage losses of maize by improving the farmers storage system and through the adoption of preventive measures as an integrated package
ER  -