author(s)
SVS Gopala Swamy, B John Wesley, D Sandeep Raja and S Vishnuvardhan

abstract
The pulse beetles, Callosobruchus sp, have been recognized as major post-harvest insect pests of stored pulses in tropical and subtropical countries whose damage leads to qualitative and quantitative deterioration making them unfit for sowing or human consumption. Taking into consideration of the insects’ behaviour to seek the top surface in a storage bin for mating and egg laying even though they emerge from the grain far below, the technique of sand layer of 3 cm over the grain surface was developed to prevent bruchid infestation. Slight modification was made to this technique and tested for storage of various pulses meant for seed purpose at Post Harvest Technology Centre, Bapatla. The germination of blackgram, greengram and pigeonpea seed irrespective of the variety was retained even after nine months of storage under sand layer in the modified bins compared to the seed stored conventionally in gunny bags. Storage conditions in the modified system did not show any deleterious effect on viability of seeds and there was no cross infestation of bruchids as the sand layer successfully prevented their entry. This may be a simple and cheaper technique which can help small and marginal farmers to store their seed material in quantities sufficient for their land holdings till the next season with minimum expenditure and without any loss in weight and germination due to bruchid infestation.