African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6863

Full Length Research Paper

Superiority of Malawian orange local maize variety in nutrients, cookability and storability

Daiki Murayama
  • Daiki Murayama
  • Division of Utilization of Bioresources, The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Iwate University, 3-18-8 Ueda, Morioka, Iwate, Japan
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Tomoka Yamazawa
  • Tomoka Yamazawa
  • Department of Food Science, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
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Chandiona Munthali
  • Chandiona Munthali
  • Chitedze Agricultural Research Station, Department of Agricultural Research Services, Chitedze, Lilongwe, Malawi.
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Ephantus, N. Bernard
  • Ephantus, N. Bernard
  • Department of Food Science, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
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Rodney, L. Gondwe
  • Rodney, L. Gondwe
  • Department of Agro-environmental Science, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
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Jiwan, P. Palta
  • Jiwan, P. Palta
  • Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 575 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
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Masayuki Tani
  • Masayuki Tani
  • Research Center for Global Agromedicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
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Hiroshi Koaze
  • Hiroshi Koaze
  • Research Center for Global Agromedicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
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Daigo Aiuchi
  • Daigo Aiuchi
  • Research Center for Global Agromedicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
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  •  Received: 10 January 2017
  •  Accepted: 05 April 2017
  •  Published: 11 May 2017

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the potential of an orange Malawian local maize variety MW5021 by comparing with a hybrid variety DKC-9089 for nutritional quality and processing properties such as proximate and mineral composition as well as pasting and thermal properties of the flour, and resistance against Prostephanus truncatus infestation during storage of the grain. Maize plants sampled for the experiments were cultivated under three different fertilizer applications, namely 0, 92 and 184 kg-N/ha, considering the chemical fertilizer input among Malawian smallholder farmers. Even without fertilizer input, significantly higher contents of crude protein, Mg, P, Ca, Fe and Zn were observed in MW5021, as compared with DKC-9089. Among pasting properties, setback of the flour slurry from MW5021 was significantly lower than DKC-9089 for all fertilizer treatments. Two-way ANOVA indicated that MW5021 had significantly lower number of grains damaged by P. truncatus than DKC-9089, throughout 12 weeks of storage experiment at 28±2°C. Thus, this study revealed that the Malawian orange local variety MW5021 retained by the smallholder farmers has considerably higher nutritional quality and P. truncatus resistance as well as lower retrogradation hardening after cooking the flour, than the hybrid maize DKC-9089.

 

Key words: Maize, Mineral composition, pasting properties, postharvest losses, Prostephanus truncatus, Malawi.

Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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