Effect of varying doses of Malathion on population dynamics of Tophilus zeamais (maize weevil) on stored maize and sorghum grain

Abstract

Maize and sorghum are the major staple food cereal crops in Africa (CIMMYT, 2002; Ali et al., 2011). Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world after maize, rice, wheat and barley. It staple for over 500 million resource-poor people in marginal environments (Sher et al., 2013). On average, 1,500,000 MT (UBOS, 2007) is estimated as the annual maize production in Uganda. Maize is the most highly cultivated cereal crop. Statistics from the Uganda National Housing Survey (UNHS) of 2005/6 showing that maize was cultivated by about 86% of the 4.2 million agricultural households in Uganda. Furthermore, Maize is an important staple food for the urban poor, and is the primary food source in institutions such as schools, prisons, military and the police (UNDP Value Chain Report, 2010). Besides being food for human consumption, maize is an important ingredient in livestock and poultry feeds. It is also a highly preferred starch, used in the fermentation of local non formal alcoholic brews. Maize originally a new world’s crop was introduced in Uganda in 1861(Sprague, 1987) and by 1900 was already an established crop (Ministry of Agriculture 1988). The World Bank estimates that there are about 1.3 million hectares of land suitable for maize production in Uganda (World Bank, July 1984 p.49)