Youth group offers solution to lock out grain pests

 

Mr Joseph Munene, the chairman of the Kabazi Jua Kali Youth Group, demonstrates how ametal silo is used to store grain. Photo/Moraa Obiria 

By MORAA OBIRIA
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A youth group in Subukia, Nakuru County, has developed a mobile metal silo that can be used by small-scale farmers and traders to store grains, helping to reduce post-harvest losses.

The silo can be used to keep rats and weavils away from maize, beans, wheat, sorghum and millet with minimal chance of contamination.

The 25-member Kabazi Jua Kali Youth Group started making the grain storage equipment after training on crop post-management technologies early in 2012 at the Agricultural Training Centre in Solio.

“We realised that there are various methods and technologies that can reduce or even eliminate losses after harvesting the grains. One of them was using the family-size metal silos,” says Joseph Munene, the group’s chairman.

So far about 100 farmers have received 13 of the metal silos.

“It is easier to reach many farmers through their groups than going out to talk to each one of them separately. The reception has been quite good and many are willing to buy it but pay the amount in instalments,” says Robert Nderu, a member of the group.

After receiving further input from scientists at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, the group started soldering the silos from stainless iron sheets in December, 2012.

The container is then deoxidised through burning candles, eliminating any agents of metabolism that can lead to rotting or infestation by pests.

“Unlike sacks which tear easily and cannot last more than three years without being chewed by the rats, a metal silo can stay for more than 10 years. No rat or weevil can get in as long it is tightly closed,” adds Mr Munene.

The metal silo equipped with easily removable lids are sold at Sh15,000 and can hold about half a tonne of maize or six 90-kilogramme bags. The silo also reduces spillage during transport.

“The advantage is that they are mobile, you can move them from one place to another depending on where you want to keep your cereals,” Mr Munene, who is also a grain farmer in Kabazi, said.

The group reaches farmers through community-based organisations and has sold 13 silos to a group of 100 farmers in Subukia who jointly grow maize and beans.

Statistics show that Kenya loses up to a third of its annual maize harvest to pests and rotting, with poor storage facilities the main cause, exposing consumers to aflatoxin contamination.

Official data shows that maize consumption rate in Kenya has grown from 3.6 million 90-kilogramme bags in 2010 to 3.72 million bags in 2013 due to population growth.