“Remote sensing, predictable storage of agricultural commodities and advances in hermetic storage”

Modified atmosphere hermetic storage, now used in over 115 countries for fumigant-free storage of dry commodities from coffee to rice and maize, has been available for almost three decades. This paper describes the progress in the field use of hermetic postharvest storage systems and of recent innovations in this technology which include the introduction of remote monitoring of temperature, humidity and O2 or CO2 levels in large, sealed hermetic containers. Also, introduced in 2018, is the Cocoon Lite™, a 2nd generation multi-tonne container with major improvements in the permeability, weight and cost of high performance, large hermetic storage systems. Early examples of the uses of these innovations and data obtained from their study is expected by year end. The GrainPro EcoWiSe™ is a remote sensing system that enables monitoring of temperature, moisture and oxygen/carbon dioxide levels, thus providing real-time data on the conditions of the stored commodity involved without manual intervention. One (or more) low-cost, remote, wireless sensors/transmitters placed inside sealed. Postharvest hermetic storage units can be read remotely on laptops or cellphones. Data collected and accumulated over time enables development of an “algorithm” for a stored commodity to define an alarm, where the user can be notified immediately of any unsafe humidity or oxygen storage conditions. A substantial advance in large hermetic storage containers known as Cocoons™ is the new Cocoon Lite, a 500:1 improvement in permeability to oxygen as well as a unit weight only 28% of existing Cocoons with the same capacity and a significantly lower cost. The paper also discusses prevention of the public health hazard of exponential growth of aflatoxin levels in conventional postharvest storage such as in rice, maize, and groundnuts; field data is provided on the control achieved through hermetic storage.