**2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Experimentation Sites*

The experiment was carried out in the municipalities of Savalou and Boukoumbé in the central and northern regions of Benin, respectively. The municipality of Savalou is located in the savannah-humid agroecological zone (800–1000 mm), and that of Boukoumbé is located in northern Benin in the humid agroecological zone (>1000 mm). Boukoumbé is between 10◦ and 10◦40 N latitude and 0◦75 and 1◦30 E longitude with an annual average rainfall of 1067 mm and average temperature of approximately 27 ◦C, with variations from 20 to 38 ◦C Tchegnon [14]. In Savalou, the average annual rainfall is 1150 mm, with annual variations between 864 and 1637.3 mm, and temperatures are high throughout the year, with minimums between 23 and 24 ◦C and maximums between 35 and 36 ◦C [19]. Four and ten villages were selected in Savalou and Boukoumbé, respectively, based on the production level and the importance of maize in the production system. The experiments were carried out over three years. In the first year, 23 and 27 farmers were selected in Savalou and Boukoumbé, respectively, based on their willingness to host and ability to manage the experimental storage trials. To perform analyses, we used data from farmers who participated in the trials for two successive years, either the first and second years or the second and third years. This gave rise to a total of 12 producers in central Benin (Savalou) and 13 in northern Benin (Boukoumbé).
