Comparative study of hermetic and non-hermetic storage on quality of cowpea in Ghana

Abstract Background Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) serves as a major food and income generation crop for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. However, post-harvest losses associated with this crop still remain a critical issue of concern in most developing countries. This study was therefore carried out to investigate the effect of hermetic and non-hermetic storage on cowpea in plastic containers in the tropics. The cowpeas were stored in hermetic and non-hermetic containers over a period of 12 weeks. The parameters evaluated were the moisture content, insect infestation, usable proportion, and 1000 grain mass in both hermetic and non-hermetic systems. Results The moisture content in the hermetic containers increased slightly from 11.7 to 11.9% compared to a sharp increase from 11.7 to 17.2% in the non-hermetic plastic containers. From the fourth week to the twelfth week, the number of live insects drastically reduced to zero in the hermetic system. In the case of the non-hermetic containers, the population of live insects/100 g of grains increased from 5 on week 0–71 on the twelfth week. Also, the mass of 1000 grains reduced from 156.50 g on week 0–145.21 g in the non-hermetically stored grains, while the hermetically stored grains recorded a decrease to 148.95 g. Finally, the usable proportion of grains in the hermetic system declined from 98.55 to 94.80% after 12 weeks of storage as compared to the drop to 85.69% seen in the non-hermetic system. Conclusions Based on our findings, it was further concluded that hermetic storage could offer a better way of storing cowpea as compared to the non-hermetic system. Graphical abstract A graphical depiction of hermetic and non-hermetic storage of cowpeas

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF HERMETIC AND NON-HERMETIC STORAGE ON QUALITY OF COWPEA IN GHANA

The data presented is a comparative study of hermetic and Non-hermetic storage on quality of cowpea in Ghana. Measured parameters include: Moisture content, Insect infestation, 1000 grain mass and Usable proportion of grains after 12 weeks of storag

Design, construction and evaluation of an evaporative cooler for the storage of sweet potatoes in the north Ghana

A 14.4 × 86.0 × 70.0 cm mud evaporative cooler was designed and constructed for the storage of sweet potato roots to evaluate its performance in storing orange fleshed sweet potato variety (Apomuden) roots.  The investigation lasted for 14 weeks, from November 2014 to February, 2015.  The dry bulb (Tdb) and wet bulb temperatures (Twb) for the ambient storage ranged between 27.600C to 26.900C and 22.500C to 20.100C respectively with their corresponding RH of 64.00%, 77.00% respectively, while Tdb and Twb within the cooler ranged between 25.940C to 24.860C and 21.940C to 20.610C with corresponding R.H of 89.00% to 92.00% respectively.  The efficiency of the constructed evaporative cooler was 87.17%. From an initial weight of 2000 g, roots weight decreased to 1298.3 g during the storage period, while the weight loss within the cooler was from 2000 g to 1570.65 g over the same period. Also, the moisture content of the roots stored under ambient conditions declined from 68.9% to 48.35%.  Roots stored in the evaporative cooler declined from 68.9% to 60.80%.  As mc decreased from 68.9% to 48.35%, energy content increased from an initial of 501 to 858.677 kJ/100g under ambient storage while in the evaporative cooler, as mc declined, from 68.9% to 60.8%, energy content increased from an initial of 501.518 to 642.296 kJ/100g.  The evaporative cooler maintained the quality of the sweet potato roots by fourteen weeks while those stored in the ambient storage lasted for eight weeks