Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS)
Purdue University
Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS)
Fighting Hunger, Stimulating Economies, Changing Lives
Winner for the 2020 W. K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award
View all 2020 W. K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award Recipients
Millions of farmers in developing nations who depend on cereal and legumes for food security and income can lose 30% of their stored grains due to insect damage. Farmers often must sell their grain at harvest, when prices are low, or use insecticides that can be ineffective, expensive, or poisonous.
Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) technology, developed by Purdue College of Agriculture in collaboration with African scientists in 2007, utilizes a triple layer sealed plastic bag that cuts off the oxygen supply to insects by creating hermetic conditions, eliminating insect damage during grain storage (Murdock & Baoua, 2014). Since 2007, more than 7 million farmers have been taught how to use PICS bags in about 60,000 villages, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa.