Abstract
Interest in using hermetic technologies as a pest management solution for stored grain has risen in recent years. One hermetic approach, Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, has proven successful in controlling the postharvest pests of cowpea. This success encouraged farmers to use of PICS bags for storing other crops including maize. To assess whether maize can be safely stored in PICS bags without loss of quality, we carried out laboratory studies of maize grain infested with Sitophilus zeamais (Motshulsky) and stored in PICS triple bags or in woven polypropylene bags. Over an eight month observation period, temperatures in the bags correlated with ambient temperature for all treatments. Relative humidity inside PICS bags remained constant over this period despite the large changes that occurred in the surrounding environment. Relative humidity in the woven bags followed ambient humidity closely. PICS bags containing S. zeamais-infested grain saw a significant decline in oxygen compared to the other treatments. Grain moisture content declined in woven bags, but remained high in PICS bags. Seed germination was not significantly affected over the first six months in all treatments, but declined after eight months of storage when infested grain was held in woven bags. Relative damage was low across treatments and not significantly different between treatments. Overall, maize showed no signs of deterioration in PICS bags versus the woven bags and PICS bags were superior to woven bags in terms of specific metrics of grain quality.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Bag temperatures correlated with ambient temperature across treatments.
Zea maysNot reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“temperatures in the bags correlated with ambient temperature for all treatments”
Claim · model-written summary
Relative humidity remained constant inside PICS bags.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“Relative humidity inside PICS bags remained constant over this period despite the large changes that occurred in the surrounding environment”
Claim · model-written summary
Relative humidity in woven bags followed ambient humidity.
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“Relative humidity in the woven bags followed ambient humidity closely”
Claim · model-written summary
Oxygen declined significantly in PICS bags holding infested grain versus other treatments.
- Treatment
- PICS bags containing S. zeamais-infested graine0
- Interactor
- S. zeamais
Sitophilus zeamaise0pest - Outcome
- oxygene0
- Direction
- declinee0
- Comparator
- other treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“PICS bags containing S. zeamais-infested grain saw a significant decline in oxygen compared to the other treatments”
Claim · model-written summary
Grain moisture declined in woven bags.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“Grain moisture content declined in woven bags, but remained high in PICS bags”
Claim · model-written summary
Grain moisture remained high in PICS bags.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“Grain moisture content declined in woven bags, but remained high in PICS bags”
Claim · model-written summary
Seed germination was not significantly affected through six months across treatments.
- Outcome
- Seed germinatione0
- Direction
- not significantly affectede0
- Qualifier
- over the first six months in all treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“Seed germination was not significantly affected over the first six months in all treatments”
Claim · model-written summary
After eight months germination declined for infested grain in woven bags.
- Treatment
- woven bagse0
- Outcome
- germinatione0
- Direction
- declinede0
- Qualifier
- after eight months of storagee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“Seed germination was not significantly affected over the first six months in all treatments, but declined after eight months of storage when infested grain was held in woven bags”
Claim · model-written summary
Relative damage was low and did not differ significantly between treatments.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“Relative damage was low across treatments and not significantly different between treatments”
Claim · model-written summary
Maize did not deteriorate in PICS versus woven bags.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“maize showed no signs of deterioration in PICS bags versus the woven bags”
Claim · model-written summary
PICS bags were superior to woven bags on specific grain quality metrics.
- Treatment
- PICS bagse0
- Outcome
- specific metrics of grain qualitye0
- Direction
- superiore0
- Comparator
- woven bagse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Maize”
e0“PICS bags were superior to woven bags in terms of specific metrics of grain quality”
The same questions in other papers
storage · quality: grain · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
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- positive
- no effect
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See all 12 papers →storage · Sitophilus zeamais · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
6 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
- positive
3 papers more in this group
See all 7 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.