Purdue University and partner organisations have led efforts to commercialise the Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) technology, focusing on low-resource farmers in different regions of the world. Many government and development agencies, NGOs, and the private sector have trained farmers how to use hermetic storage technologies. Since 2007, PICS bags have been commercialized in more than 34 countries in Africa, Asia, and more recently in Central America and the Caribbean. More than 68,000 communities received training that reached an estimated 7 million farmers. From 2007 to June 2020, plastic factories around the world have manufactured and sold more than 23 million PICS bags to farmers and other users. Scale-up activities to increase adoption of PICS bags have been implemented in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These efforts have included (i) largescale extension activities that included training of extension/field agents, and training of farmers through demonstrations in villages and markets, (ii) developing the supply chain by working with the private sector to ensure the technology is available in communities and local markets, and (iii) media activities – print, audio and visual (radio, posters, TV, cell phones, newspapers, etc.).

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You can download a guide on how to store seeds using PICS bags by clicking here. If you are interested in buying PICS bags or wish to find out more, please e-mail PICSinfo@purdue.edu.

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