2. Life cycle analysis of PICS [Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage] bags
• To assess PICS bags purchasing and grounds of information.
• Usage of PICS bags for cowpea storage.
• Performance of PICS bags during repeated use.
• End life examination of PICS bags (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102).
According to Society of toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle assessment serves as an analytical instrument which help us to understand the environmental impact of a product from procurement to the end of the product life (Muthu et al. 2011: 469-475). In some developing countries post-harvest loss is a big problem as farmers always gaze for various technologies to reduce the grain loss such as insecticides, plastic containers, metal drums, clay pots, mud silos but they are expensive not available at local scale and present some health hazards. To tackle all these problems a cheap triple layer technology called Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) bag was developed (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102). It is composed of one outer Polypropylene (PP) and 80 microns thick two inner liners made from high density polyethylene (HDPE). These kind of plastics are being used throughout the world for food packaging and is present in two main forms HDPE and LDPE.HDPE is hard wearing plastic and provides oxygen barricade and is normally being used to produce plastic pipes and liquid transporting cans whereas LDPE is used for making shopping bags. Though the bags are free form chemicals and effective in storing cowpea, farmers adapt them and therefore many government organizations and developing agencies were concerned about environmental pollution impacts of PICS bags. By understanding the durability of the bags and their recycling would help the government organizations to empower farmers how to use PICS bags with proper information (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102)
Study was conducted in NIGER region as it was a part of PICS project pilot program and in 2007 around 100 villages which follows 5000 villages in 2008 and five volunteer farmers from each village participated to test PICS bags and the survey was conducted in November- December 2011. NIGER government food security agency ordered 800,000 bags in 2010 to store food and after a year of storage it has been sold to grain traders and they sold grains to consumers and bags to farmers (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102). Sampling has been done for four villages in 2007 and four villages in 2008 taken part in PICS project and two villages did not participate in the project in either year from total of ten villages. From each village six people were selected randomly for interview such as the volunteer farmers and rest of them are the new farmers who bought PICS bag for storage of cowpeas in year 2007 and 2008.From non PICS village’s total six farmers have been selected who acquired the PICS bags for storage cowpea in year 2007 and 2008 in addition of ten grain traders who used PICS bags. Information has been collected by 121 questionnaire such as Individual usage of PICS bags to store cowpeas, reusable cycle of PICS bags, PICS bags recycling and handling when reaching the end life (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102).
3. Performance of PICS bags during Cowpea storage
PICS bags are made up from heavy duty plastic material and therefore it can be reused again. First year usage percentage is [100%], second [97.3%], third [79.0%], fourth [15.4%] went well in four year study period of PICS as shown in Table 1.1. Some of the farmers start using PICS in 2008 were unable to submit their feedback as they were in third year of their usage (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102). When the bags get defective with few holes it can be repaired by clear tape and can reuse again. PICS woven bags can be used to store crops with low store pest pressure such as dried okra[10.7%], sesame[<1%], hay[6.8%], groundnut[19.1%], millet[54.4%], whereas PICS bag liners can be used for some other crop storage such as millet[5.3%],sorrel[24.4%],wheat and cowpea flour[10.7%],dried okra[19.1%].Also when PICS bag liners are not in use for storage purposes they go for recycling for other uses such as tarps to cover hay and crops[35.1%], baby diaper covers[14.1%], making plastic ropes[5.3%] and mats[5.3%]. Window covers, storage of clothes and to light fires are some other uses. Environmental impact goes down when reusing and recycling options are there but on the other hand charges and labors are involved when collecting, transporting, and cleaning and reprocessing makes the work difficult on practical front (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102). Small scale farming get a major boost as they have limited resources to store their crops for several years in cost effective way. PICS bags are not rejected by the framers and can be reused in many other ways. Suggestions have been made to manufacture PICS bags from biodegradable plastics as none of the manufacturer produce PICS from biodegradable materials. One of the main reasons is the high cost approximately 2-10 times more than that of conventional material as study conducted in India. Small scale farmers could not afford to pay for the PICS bags who are the main consumers. Use of biodegradable plastics without any waste management plan also create environmental problems as for Non-biodegradable plastics. By creating a legal structure and economic incentives short lived plastics like plastic bags, water sachets can be disposed of effectively. For instance in Rwanda plastic bags are banned only Polypropylene Woven bags are still in place but PICS bags are allowed in Rwanda as of their low impact on Environment. Reusing PICS again and again save costs for small scale farmers as investing in storage each year would be saved and in addition to that reusing and recycling have major benefits such as it reduces the need for producing more bags, lifespan of the bag is increased as a result of more reuse and decreases the usage of insecticides which can have harmful effect on humans and environment. Fate of the PICS bags when no longer recycled not known by the study conducted but the assumption to use PICS bags liners to light fire might be the end of PICS (Baributsa et al. 2014: 97-102).