Metal silos now ultimate weapon against ‘Osama’

By HEZRON OCHIEL

KENYA: For many years, George Otiep, 37, was selling green maize directly from his farm for fear that the maize stalk borer commonly known as ‘Osama’ would destroy his crop. This left his family grappling with severe food shortages every year.

“Before Osama invaded, I used to grow grain that would last my family until the next season. But when the pest invaded, I lost 10 sacks of maize. I stopped waiting for the maize to dry and would sell while it was still green at a throwaway price,” said Mr Otiep, a resident of Homa Bay County.

While he opted to go this route, many other farmers continued to rely on traditional cribs and gunny bags to store their grain, methods that could not guarantee protection against pests. Such post-harvest losses were threatening food production around the country.

But this is changing with the introduction of metal silos, which are promising to be the ultimate weapon in improving food security for small-scale farmers by guaranteeing full protection against destructive pests.

No chemicals

“In the few years I have used the silo, my grain is no longer being lost to Osama. Even weevils no longer attack. This means I don’t have to use chemicals. I simply harvest and store the crops,” said Otiep, one of the beneficiaries of the metal silos project.

Since Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a non-governmental organisation, first introduced the silos seven years ago, more than 500 farmers have bought them, and production levels have rapidly risen as farmers expand their output and even order larger silos.

“Initially farmers ordered small silos that could contain only two bags of grain (180kg). But now that they have realised their effectiveness, they are ordering larger ones of 20 bags (1,800kg),” said Nicholas Onyango, an artisan manufacturing the silos. 

The metal silos project was informed by frequent severe pest infestations, which occasionally wiped entire harvests out and resulted in massive losses.

“With the traditional storage facilities, the rate of destruction by the notorious Osama, which currently accounts for 10-20 per cent of post-harvest losses in Kisumu alone, was severe. This prompted the need for a lasting solution,” said Pamela Ojoro, a field officer from the Homa Bay Catholic Diocese involved in the programme.

Simple technology

It is against this backdrop that the diocese came up with a simple and affordable technology to help remedy the situation. The silos are effective in locking out any insect or pest that may want to invade the grain.

Storage challenges have led to grain spoilage, thus reducing farmers’ appetite for growing more crops. The traditional storage methods — such as granaries — which are prone to pest infestation and theft, have failed to guarantee safe storage for many farmers.

In a world where half of all food is wasted, an estimated 870 million suffer from hunger. The estimated total value of food loss at the retail and consumer levels in the United States, as purchased at retail prices, was $165.6 billion in 2008 alone.

Food and nutrition experts believe that reducing food losses through better harvesting, storage, processing, transportation and marketing methods, and combining this with profound and lasting changes in the way people consume food, could guarantee the world’s food security.

“Poor storage facilities meant that farming was for subsistence, where grain produced barely reached the next season.

But with these silos and super bags in use, we have seen production go up,” Aggrey Otwera, an agricultural expert from the government, told The Standard.

However, even as farmers embrace the silos and abandon their traditional storage methods, the challenge of space, proper use of the equipment and price could cripple the technology.

With the cheapest silo (one bag or 90kg) going for Sh3,000 and largest (20 bags or 1,800kg) costing Sh35,000, poor farmers can hardly afford them.

In addition, the silos require sufficient space and so farmers with small houses are still reluctant to buy into the idea.

Ojoro says space, coupled with an inability to follow procedures – proper drying of the cereals before storage and keeping the silos away from dump or direct sunlight – could jeopardise effective use.

To eliminate rotting, it is recommended that grain meant for storage in the silos be completely dried. Whenever such guidelines are strictly followed, the crop is kept safe for more than two years.

No oxygen

Made from galvanized metal, the silos are air tight. Enclosed lit candles are used  inside to exhaustively burn any oxygen.

Learning from the success of the silos, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and Catholic Diocese of Homa Bay have started a similar project in Western Kenya with help from a subsidy – the Agriculture and Environment Programme of the Diocese.

The three-year programme is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.