Farmer’s Knowledge and Perception on Factors Limiting Maize Storage and Their Management in the Humid Rainforest and Highland Ecozones of Cameroon

Aims: The study sought to determine planting dates, handling of the crop when mature and if farmers faced problems with maize ear rot/mould, insects and any other constraints and how they control these problems.

Study Design: Random interviewing of maize farmers.

Place and Duration of Study: Interviewed farmers in Ndop and Buea of the humid rainforest and highland ecological zones which are two agro-ecological zones of Cameroon respectively from September 2014 to January 2016.

Methodology: Structured questionnaires administered randomly to 300 farmers with 150 each from Ndop and Buea to document the constraints of handling and storing maize after maturity.

Results: The results showed that most farmers, 139 (92.7%) in Ndop and 123 (82.0%) in Buea planted maize in March. Most farmers in Ndop 137 (92.7%) stored maize in barns while most in Buea 106 (70. 7%) stored in bags. Most famers in Ndop 119 (79.3%) and Buea127 (84.7%) faced problems with maize ear rot/mould and this ear rot/mould is as a result of lack of storage infrastructure/drying facilities as most of them controlled this by drying; 96 (80.7%) out of those who had problems with ear rot/mould in Ndop dried maize in firewood kitchens and 96 (80.7%) of those in Buea sunned their maize as a control measure. They indicated that ear rot/mould prevented them from storing maize that was planted during first season (March, April and May). Also most farmers indicated they had problems with insects, 143 (95.3%) in Ndop and 117 (85.4%) in Buea. These insects create favourable conditions for ear rot/mould in Ndop (χ2 = 17.66, P = 0.001) and Buea (χ2 = 13.71, P = 0.00). Furthermore, Farmers in Buea reported that insects were gotten from the field in to stores (χ2 = 4.34, P = 0.04) as well as those from Ndop (χ2 = 10.67, P = 0.001). Famers had limited knowledge on the use of plant based products to control insects as only 4 (2.7%) used plant derivatives in Buea and relied more on the use of synthetic chemicals.

Conclusion: to sustainably control maize ear rot/mould and stored insect pests, the following integrated approaches can be used; timely harvesting of maize, using appropriate drying technologies supplemented with judicious use of synthetic pesticides and environmentally friendly methods like plant-based products which are underexploited in Ndop and Buea.