*4.3.5 Basket storage type*

A basket is the other type of storage used by smallholder maize farmers in Uganda (**Figure 6**).

These are mainly used to store maize temporarily during transitory periods. **Table 1** showed that few of smallholder maize farmers used baskets. It is a round-shaped open bowl made locally with banana and papyrus fibre. This storage type has ancestral attachments. Baskets are made locally and are affordable. They vary in size and may keep between five and twenty kilogrammes of maize. A participant noted that:

*Those who cannot make the baskets buy them from the communities because some experts make baskets for sell. They are less expensive compared to granaries and cribs. The maize is kept clean as it undergoes drying. The basket is durable in that it can last for two or more years if properly kept. The danger with basket storage is that it is highly susceptible to pests, rats, and mould, which cause high losses. When purchased, baskets cost between 2.68 UDS and 5.36 USD depending on the size (Female farmer, Bubutu sub-county, Manafwa district).*

Respondents explained that the baskets are normally used every season but for a short period because, like sacks, they are easy to carry around when sun-drying maize.
