Maize (Zea mays L), commonly known as corn in the United States, is the third most important cereal grain worldwide, after wheat and rice. It is a basic staple grain for large groups of people in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In tropical countries, a large proportion of the maize is harvested and stored under humid and warm climatic conditions, which subsequently results in rapid deterioration of the grains, mainly because of growth of molds and pests. This study reviewed the main factors that lead to deterioration of maize in tropical countries and suggests ways of preventing the identified causes. This paper also reviews world production, varieties, climatic and storage conditions of maize. Deterioration of maize is mainly affected by moisture content, temperature (grain and air), relative humidity, storage conditions, fungal growth, and insect pests. Fungal growth, especially Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium sp in maize, facilitated by hot and humid conditions, poses a major risk through production of mycotoxins. In order to maintain high quality maize for both short- and long-term storage, maize must be protected from weather, growth of microorganisms, and pests.

/pdf/effects-of-deterioration-parameters-on-storage-of-maize-a-3df6w0ajbz.pdf

Effects of Deterioration Parameters on Storage of Maize: A Review

. Maize (Zea mays L), commonly known as corn in the United States, is the third most important cereal grain worldwide, after wheat and rice. It is a basic staple grain for large groups of people in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In tropical countries, a large proportion of the maize is harvested and stored under humid and warm climatic conditions, which subsequently results in rapid deterioration of the grains, mainly because of growth of molds and pests. This study reviewed the main factors that lead to deterioration of maize in tropical countries and suggests ways of preventing the identified causes. This paper also reviews world production, varieties, climatic and storage conditions of maize. Deterioration of maize is mainly affected by moisture content, temperature (grain and air), relative humidity, storage conditions, fungal growth, and insect pests. Fungal growth, especially Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium sp in maize, facilitated by hot and humid conditions, poses a major risk through production of mycotoxins. In order to maintain high quality maize for both short- and long-term storage, maize must be protected from weather, growth of microorganisms, and pests.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1324&context=abe_eng_conf

Effects of Deterioration Parameters on Storage of Maize

A considerable quantum of grains is deteriorated during storage due to several defects in the storage structures. The present study was conducted considering the problems with regard to wheat losses during storage. Thus, a survey was conducted to identify wheat storage methods and associated problems. This followed a practical evaluation of traditional or existing wheat storage structures using Complete Randomized Design (CRD). Three new structures were also developed to cope up with the existing storage problems. These developed structures were tested in-situ under CRD. This study was conducted in four major wheat growing districts of Sindh province namely, Hyderabad,Sukkur, Badin and Shaheed Benazir Abad. The average area of land in the studied districts under wheat crop was 5 acres and the average total production of wheat was 6500 kg out of which 2500 kg of wheat was available for storage by farmers for seed,home consumption and sell to the market. Wheat storage structures which were found to be used by farmers of study areas included: earthen bin (23%), metallic bin (16%),bamboo/straw bin (20%), bulk covered (17%), bags covered (10%) and room type structures (14%). The survey results revealed that the traditional structures were not an insect, rodent, fungi and moisture proof. Traditional structures were found to have various defects such as cracks, holes, leakages and structural failure in the roof, walls and floor of the structures because of poor strength of materials and improper design of structures. Other storage problems were loss of seed germination capacity,discoloration of the grain, and sprouting during storage. Based on the results of the study, the above mentioned problems incur about 10 to 40% of the stored wheat grain loss annually. During the practical evaluation, wheat grain stored in these structures was sampled from July 2013 to July 2014 at 3 months interval and was analyzed for quality deterioration over time and space. This means, the effect of structure, time and location were observed. The highest values of grain temperature (36.08 °C), insectinfestation (12.55%), weight loss (1.65%), fungal incidence (17.25%) and aflatoxin level (8.35 μg kg-1) were observed in grains stored in room store, followed by bags covered, bamboo/straw bin, bulk covered method, metal bin and then earthen bin. Deterioration of grain quality showed an increasing pattern with prolonged storage in traditional structures. The maximum deterioration with respect to location of wheat grain was noted for district Badin followed by Sukkur, Shaheed Benazir Abad and Hyderabad. Thus, the pests that infested wheat stored in these storage methods were not only contaminating the stored wheat, but also consumed the nutrients of the wheat for their development and proliferation thereby leading to the farmer‟s food insecurity. Three different types of storage bins (concrete block bin, ferrocement bin and strawclay bin) of similar dimensions were designed and constructed to solve the grain storage problems. The constructed bins have several advantages such as ease of loading and unloading of grain, capable of bearing the desired load, insect and rodent proof,prevention of temperature and moisture variation, and allow pest control practices over traditional storage structures. Wheat samples were also taken from these bins at 3 months interval from July 2013 to July 2014 to assess the efficiency of bins in retaining the quality and quantity of wheat grains stored at 2 different initial moisture levels (11 and 15%). Storage period greatly affected the quality of stored grains. The maximum values of germination capacity (89.5%), 1000 grain weight (44.03 g), test weight (72.14 kg hl-1), flour yield (64.88%), starch (65.33%), protein (12.25%), dry-gluten (9.31%), fat (2.77%), ash (1.91%), falling number (301.6 sec), water absorption (66.52%), dough development time (6.23 min) and dough stability (9.31 min) were detected from grain stored in straw-clay bin followed by the concrete block bin and then ferrocement bin. However, grain moisture contents at loading (11 and 15%) showed very little effect on the quality characteristics of wheat grain. The developed storage bins have proven to be a promising solution to reduce storage losses by almost more than half of existing losses and preserve quality of wheat grain. Based on the good performance of newly developed structures, it is recommended that the existing structures should be replaced with these newly developed structures in accordance with the farmers‟ financial condition. This replacement will reduce the wheat grain loss on one hand and on the other it will prosper the farmer in particular and flourish the national economy in general.

New wheat storage structures and their effects on grain quality in Sindh, Pakistan

The primary aim of this research was to investigate the effect of dilute alkaline steeping on molds and toxicity of maize malt. Samples of maize were collected from one farm located in the Serbian ...

Effect of Dilute Alkaline Steeping on Mold Contamination, Toxicity, and Nutritive Value of Maize Malt

Maize production is affected by both biotic and abiotic stresses. Some of the biotic factors continue to affect maize even during storage where they produce some toxic metabolites with high health risks to end-users. The need to identify the extent of fungal load in storage cannot be over emphasized as the results may give an indication of the historical handling of the maize and the extent to which consumers may be exposed to mycotoxins associated with some of the fungi. The objective of this study was to identify and quantify the viable fungi that are associated with maize in storage facilities in Zimbabwe and to determine the associated level of mycotoxin. Stratified samples of maize were drawn from 23 grain storage facilities in maize producing areas in Zimbabwe in 2011. Six of the locations had grain from both the current and the previous year, resulting in 29 collected samples. The samples were plated on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Malt Salt Agar (MSA) media where viable fungi were allowed to sporulate. Due to the presence of cryptic species in Fusarium that can only be identified based on DNA sequence comparisons, the Translation Elongation Factor 1- gene sequences of the Fusarium species in the maize were compared to those of known species. The samples were further evaluated for the presence of ear rot and fumonisin contamination. In total, 33 fungal species were identified from the maize using morphological characteristics with some only observed on PDA, some only on MSA, and others in both media. Fusarium verticillioides was the most abundant field fungus while Eurotium repens had the highest incidence among the storage fungi. The two fungi could be identified using the two media, although F. verticillioides had a preference to sporulate on PDA, whereas E. repens preferred MSA. The field and storage fungi were distinguished using the two different media. The occurrence of Aspergillus flavus seemed to correlate with a reduced incidence level of F. verticillioides, and was only observed in the samples from the 2010 season. Fusarium verticillioides did not show a specific pattern in terms of geographical distribution, whereas A. flavus was more prevalent in the northern parts of Zimbabwe. The morphologically identified F. verticillioides isolates were confirmed by using DNA

Mycotoxigenic fungi associated with ear-rots in Zimbabwe: identification and inheritance of resistance in southern and West African maize inbred lines

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops in the world. It is the third most important food grain crop in the developing world and is estimated that the demand for maize in developing countries will grow by 50%, from 558 million tons in 1995 to 837 million tons in 2020. Much of this increased demand will be needed by domestic supply for developing countries, which will require intensifying production on existing agricultural land (Ribaut and Ragot, 2007). Drought is one of the prime abiotic stress in crops in the world. Crop yield losses due to drought stress are considerable. Particularly in maize, as an example, drought is the major stress affecting productivity in Africa leading up to 70% or total crop loss (Muoma et al., 2010; Ashraf, 2010). Although a variety of approaches have been used to alleviate the problem of drought, plant breeding, either conventional breeding or genetic engineering, seems to be an efficient and economic means of tailoring crops to enable them to grow successfully in drought-prone environments (Ashraf, 2010). In turn, aflatoxins are found to contaminate a wide variety of important agricultural products such as corn, peanuts, tree nuts and cottonseed especially under extreme heat and drought conditions (Payne, 1998; Chen et al., 2003). Aflatoxin contamination significantly reduces the value of grain as an animal feed and export commodity (Chen et al., 2002).

/pdf/genetic-resistance-to-drought-in-maize-and-its-relationship-2td0b41xqj.pdf

Genetic Resistance to Drought in Maize and Its Relationship in Aflatoxins Production

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Genetic Resistance to Drought in Maize and Its Relationship in Aflatoxins Production