Effectiveness and Economics of Hermetic Bags for Maize Storage: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial in Kenya

Michael Ndegwa, Hugo De Groote, Zachary Gitonga and Anani Bruce

No 212524, 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Maize is a very important crop in Africa whose production is seasonal but consumption continuous. This makes it important to store it on-farm especially for the small scale farmers, but the traditional storage methods lead to high losses. This calls for more research and investment in improved storage technologies such as hermetic bags. A randomized controlled trial was implemented in Kenya with treatment farmers using hermetic bags and control farmers conventional farmer practices. Hermetic bags were highly effective in controlling loss to an abated loss of 8.5% valued at KSh 307(US$ 3.6) for one season and KSh 918 (US$ 10.7) for three seasons, the recommended minimum times a bag can be re-used. The technology is economically viable with a benefit cost ratio of 1.6 for one season and 4.8 for three seasons.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Farm Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae15:212524

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.212524

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