Grain in storage is susceptible to threats like pest infestation and mold development that can lower the quality of the grain, its marketability, and safety. To ensure the safety of grain in storage, one must thoroughly evaluate factors such as grain temperature, moisture content, carbon dioxide concentrations, weather conditions as well as their interaction and impact on grain in a storage structure. Novel monitoring and forecasting tools are available to assist storage managers to detect and resolve efficiently challenging issues.
The grain is a basic food for many developing countries and faces the biggest losses among all agricultural products. Globally, we lose one-fifth of the projected wheat yield annually to pests and pathogens totaling losses of 209 million tonnes, worth $31 billion. The climate emergency has the capacity to bring further disruption to global food supplies, as a changing environment brings new types of pests and diseases and increases their spread. Therefore, the reduction of post-harvest loss provides a sustainable solution to increase access to food.
Maintaining grain quality during storage relies on the ability to control moisture, temperature and insects. A combination of good hygiene and well-managed aeration cooling during grain storage offers harvest flexibility, more marketing opportunities, better control of grain quality. The storage techniques for grains have been advanced in recent years with the innovations, such as aeration, refrigerated storage, modified atmospheric storage and hermetic storage systems.
Most grain damage that occurs during storage is caused by molds and insects. It’s critical to identify the factors that influence their growth to develop the appropriate equipment and computational tool to accurately monitor and predict their evolution on stored grain.
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- Common Practices and Technologies for Efficient & Sustainable Grain Conditioning
AGI’s engineers design storage solutions with the purpose of securing the value of the stored commodity inside. Aeration is one of the most common and safest practices available to preserve the stored grains quality in both industrial and farm facilities without the use of chemicals. Its proper implementation has a significant role in the prevention of kernel deterioration, grain losses due to insect and mold infestations. Along with these, aeration also provides an environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution that limits the risk of pests developing resistance to chemical agents and finally, can potentially improve business performances.
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- Optimizing bulk storage management of grain in silos and warehouses by grain cooling
“Grain cooling is a comprehensive solution for postharvest management and conservation of a grain bulk. It brings benefits which keep quantity, quality and the processing of a grain in the most economic condition. Its implementation in the warm and humid climates will lead to essential improvement of grain handling, loss reduction and good management practice, which has been proven in moderate climate already for more than 50 years.”
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- Assuring grain quality in storage
“Temperature monitoring and ventilation are central elements in assuring storage grain quality. To manage temperature and moisture, ventilation has become the main tool to improve extended grain storage. It requires a multifaceted approach, balancing readings of humidity and temperature, both inside and outside of the silo.”
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