A new study has found a way of storing the drought-tolerant
legume,cowpeas, so as to prevent their destruction by weevils,
in a low-cost solution that could benefit millions of farmers
across Africa. Cowpea is not only drought-tolerant, but grows
well in poor soils with a high sand content. However the
harvested beans are vulnerable to cowpea weevils, Callosobruchus
maculatus, which can multiply rapidly. Even a small infestation
can destroy an entire stored crop in a few months. Scientists
have been studying how farmers store cowpeas and learnt that a
long-standing method of killing cowpea weevils involved storing
the harvest inside three layered and individually sealed plastic
bags. It was assumed the pests died of suffocation. Now
researchers in Africa and the US have published a study of the
method saying that while lack of oxygen reduces the weevils'
feeding activity, what actually kills them is lack of water, and
that the drier the harvest at the time of storage the harder it
is for the weevils to surviv