Risk Factors for Spoilage of Groundnut Seeds in Shops during Marketing

Abstract

Post-harvest storage of oilseeds, particularly groundnut, is a real problem for farmers and traders whose stocks are subject to attacks by pests and fungal contaminants in the shops. In order to find alternative solutions to this problem, a survey was conducted in Côte d’Ivoire, specifically in the markets of the communes Abobo, Adjamé and Yopougon in city of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The objective of this work is to evaluate the main risk factors for spoilage of groundnut seeds sold during storage in the Abidjan markets. To this end, a survey was conducted among 75 groundnut seeds sellers in the three aforementioned communes of Abidjan and identified the main risk factors favorable to spoilage of groundnut seeds sold during storage. The lack of exact knowledge of the origin of the groundnut seeds sold (92 to 100%), the storage of groundnut seeds in polyethylene bags (84 to 100%), the lack of knowledge of spoilage (28 to 44%), the long periods of sale (22.2 to 86.7%), moisture (0 to 72.2%) and insect pests (5.6 to 20%° were identified as the main factors of these risk of spoilage.