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Profitability of purdue improved crop storage (PICS) bags for african common bean producers. Mike Jones, Corinne Alexander, and Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer. A. obtectus , Z. subfasciatus Cowpea bruchids Without grain protection, six month dry weight losse s of 10-40 % are common
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Profitability of purdue improved crop storage (PICS) bags for african common bean producers Mike Jones, Corinne Alexander, and Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer
A. obtectus, • Z. subfasciatus • Cowpea bruchids • Without grain protection, six month dry weight losses of 10-40% are common • Kiula and Karel (1985) • How does this affect marketing producers wishing to store? Major common bean Storage Pests Source: (top) ethz.ch, (bottom) infonet-biovision.org,
What economic benefit of PICS technology could exist for marketing common bean producers? How would the profitability of common bean storage with PICS compare to other current methods? Major questions
Songa and Rono (1998) • *Chemicals: Ex. Actellic Super • *Solar Disinfestation: “Sunning and Sieving” (weekly) • Paul et al. (2009) • *Botanicals • A. indica • C. Ambrosioides • Dichotomous Earth: Keep Dry® • Ash: S. and R. (1998) found much less effective • *Hermetic? • Compare to cowpea losses until PICS data available, cite cowpea losses used in Moussa (2005) COMMON bean storage protectants
(Weakly) link DWL to % Damaged through Mulungu (2006) Common bean price discounts from Mishili et al. (2011) in Tanzania A 2.3% price discount was found for every bruchid hole in 100 grain sample Revenue Loss derived MOSTLY from quality loss and price discounts Common Bean Hedonic Price Formation *Conservative assumption of one hole per bean
Tanzania: Common bean price seasonality Source: FEWSNET
Tanzania: Common bean price seasonality Source: FEWSNET
Common Bean Price Seasonality Across East Africa Source: FEWSNET (five-year average [nominal] monthly prices)
Largest common bean producing country in East Africa • Focus on (green) production areas • Kigoma • Mbeya • Songea • Arusha Case study: tanzania
Following losses from Songa and Rono (1998), PICS should be competitive with chemical and solar methods. Use of bag for second year is important Returns to various methods: Mbeya
Need to incorporate incoming PICS data from current trials- Help link science and economics! • Dry weight loss • Holes in 100 grains/ % Beans Damaged • Quality is import and probably varies by region • Room for economic research in price discounts • Understand greater impact of Opportunity Cost and credit constraints • Will surely affect adoption for high-value beans • Price seasonality must compensate! Way forward