Title:
Bags Help Farmers Protect Harvests From Air and
Insects
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Airtight plastic bags can help farmers protect their
harvests without the use of harmful chemicals. These
bags are designed to keep air out of crops in
storage. They are a simple way to fight insects and
keep food fresh. Ten countries in West and Central
Africa are involved in a project to improve the
storage of cowpeas, also known as black-eyed peas.
Farmers can lose much of the harvest to insects
called bruchids. These grow from egg to adult in a
few weeks and then lay forty to sixty more eggs.
They can destroy the whole harvest within months.
Farmers can sell their crop immediately. But selling
at harvest time means more competition and lower
prices. Or they can use pesticides to kill the bugs.
But crop scientist Dieudonne Baributsa says that is
also risky. He said farmers may misuse or overuse
the pesticide. Mr. Baributsa is a researcher at
Purdue University in the American state of Indiana.
The project is called PICS, for Purdue Improved
Cowpea Storage. Mr. Baributsa says the storage bags
are thick enough that any insects already in the
cowpeas will die from a lack of oxygen. The lack of
air will also help prevent the growth of bacteria
and fungi that can ruin the harvest.The bags cost
about two dollars each. Mr. Baributsa says that is
not much, especially if it means farmers can wait
long enough to get a better price for their crop.
The bags are produced locally. Donors currently
support the project, but the groups involved are
working to build a lasting market for the bags. The
bags are being advertised by radio and mobile phone
videos in local languages. The project includes
Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali. The
other countries are Senegal, Cameroon, Benin, Togo
and Chad.A company based in the United States called
GrainPro makes another kind of airtight bag. These
are called SuperGrainbags. Phil Villers, the company
president, says safely storing a harvest not only
earns more money for farmers. It also reduces the
amount of food lost to insects, spoilage and
mishandling. For VOA Special English I'm Alex
Villarreal. To see what the PICS bag looks like, go
to voaspecialenglish.com, where you can also find
transcripts and MP3s of our reports. You can also
find us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning
English.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
