Alemu Gashaw Tenna, Nigussie Zerihun, Haregeweyn Nigussie, Berhanie Zewdu, Wondimagegnehu Beneberu Assefa, Ayalew Zemen, Molla Dessalegn, Okoyo Eric Ndemo, Baributsa Dieudonne
The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-Minami, Tottori, 680-8553, Japan.
College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University, P.O. Box 5501, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
Crop Prot. 2021 May;143:105478. doi: 10.1016/j.cropro.2020.105478.
Farmers continue losing substantial quantities of grain during storage due to damages from pests including insects. Hermetic bags, being promoted in Ethiopia, could be viable alternatives to traditional methods and insecticides that are commonly used by farmers to store grain. However, the economics and determinants behind farmers' decisions to use different storage methods are poorly understood. This study sought to ascertain the economics of hermetic grain storage technology among 450 representative small-scale maize farmers in northwestern Ethiopia. Gross margin (GM), and the marginal rate of return (MRR) were employed to estimate the economic costs and benefits of storage methods, while a multivariate probit regression model was employed to analyze the determinants of farmers' decision to store maize with a given storage method. The results show that farmers used a combination of different storage techniques: 19.6% did not store grain, 87.8% used traditional methods with pesticide, and 66.7% used Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) hermetic bags. Farmers who used hermetic bags also used other mentioned storage techniques. PICS had the highest GM (US$21.77 100 kg) and MRR (3.196), indicating that they were the most profitable. Moreover, a household could obtain an additional net cash flow of US$5.02 100 kg PICS bag per season after 9.6 months of storage. Farmers' decisions to use PICS bags were influenced by several factors including access to information, the initial cost, and storage capacity of the technology. Thus, increasing awareness and improving supply chain efficiency to reduce the cost of the PICS bags would improve adoption rates.
由于包括昆虫在内的害虫造成的损害，农民在粮食储存期间继续损失大量谷物。在埃塞俄比亚推广的密封袋可能是农民储存谷物时常用的传统方法和杀虫剂的可行替代品。然而，人们对农民选择不同储存方法背后的经济因素和决定因素了解甚少。本研究旨在确定埃塞俄比亚西北部450名有代表性的小规模玉米种植农民采用密封粮食储存技术的经济情况。采用毛利率（GM）和边际回报率（MRR）来估计储存方法的经济成本和收益，同时采用多元概率回归模型来分析农民选择特定储存方法储存玉米的决定因素。结果表明，农民采用了多种不同的储存技术：19.6%的农民不储存粮食，87.8%的农民使用传统的农药储存方法，66.7%的农民使用普渡改良作物储存（PICS）密封袋。使用密封袋的农民也使用其他提到的储存技术。PICS的毛利率最高（每100公斤21.77美元），边际回报率也最高（3.196），表明它们最有利可图。此外，在储存9.6个月后，每户家庭每个季节使用PICS袋每100公斤可获得额外净现金流5.02美元。农民选择使用PICS袋的决定受到多种因素的影响，包括信息获取、初始成本和该技术的储存能力。因此，提高认识并改善供应链效率以降低PICS袋的成本将提高采用率。
