All Perishable crops are Living plants, containing higher water content to approximately 65-90%, and they are continuing their living process after harvest. The length of their post Harvest life depends upon to the rate at which they use up their stored food reserves and rate of water loss from the produce. when food and water reserves are Depleted the produce dies and got decayed.
THE FOLLOWING ARE THE MAIN CAUSES OF LOSSES IN HORTICULTURAL CROPS AND HOW TO REDUCE THEM.
01. The losses occured from Physiological Deterioration.
This is due to abdormal physiological changes within the commodity caused by the conditions such as;
> Extremes of Temperature ( high/Low)
>Low atmospheric Humidity
>Physical injury
>Contamination
These abdormal physiological changes can results into the following effects to consumers;
>Unpalatable Flavors, Failure to Ripen or abnormal ripening, rotting and decay that makes it to be unfit for human consumptions.
02. Mechanical Damage (Physical Damage) Losses.
These losses are always happening during harvesting period, transportation of produces, and storaging.
High moisture content and soft texture of fruits, vegetables and root crops makes them highly susceptible to mechanical injury, which can occur at any stage from harvesting to retail marketing.The following are causes that accelerates losses due to mechanical damage;
>Poor harvesting practices
This usually happens when harvestors use abdormal methods like stone throwing, striking with woods or long sticks having nails that normally cause crushing of fruits and mechanical injuries.
>Use of unsuitable field or marketing containers and crates which may have splintered wood, sharp edges, poor nailing and stapling
>Over packing or under packing of horticurtural produces within containers during transportation.
>Care less handling such as dropping, throwing, and even walking over the containers having produces during transportation.
Mechanical injuries may results into..
>Providing Entry point for micro organisms causing decay i.e Fungi and bacteria.
>Increased water loss from the produces through damaged zones.
>Causing an increase in respiration rates and heat production.
Now after see the above major causes of Post harvesting losses in Horticultural crops now, we are proceeding next to see on how to reduce the losses.
•ENSURING PROPER PERIODIC HARVESTING TIME OF THE PRODUCES
Once the fruits or vegetables have reached at maturity stage, they should be harvested soon to avoid over ripening, and even decay while they are in the farm field. The decay can be caused due to micro organisms invation, or wild animals attack. So to avoid such loss, all Perishable crops should be harvested at the specific time without delaying.
Matured Avocado ready to be harvested.
Unmatured Avocado
•ENSURING PROPER HARVESTING METHODOLOGIES.
The matured horticultural crops should be harvested by using snapping (picking) method and put inside the container, or any improved tools that do not have injury scare like nails, and sharp edges so as to avoid machanical damage losses.
•REDUCTION OF POST HARVESTING LOSSES DURING STORAGE OF FRESH HORTICULTURAL PRODUCES.
Once the produces are harvested from the field, they should be quickly reduced their temperature to a recommended storage temperature so as to prevent them from deterioration. This process is known as Pre cooling process. Controlling Storage temperature of produce is very important to maintain the quality of produces after harvesting. The lower the temperature the lower the deterioration of produces and higher storage time.pre cooling process to the recommended storage temperature is necessary to avoid the following effects..
>Aging due to ripening, softening, texture and color changes
>Undesirable metabolic changes and respiratory heat production
> Moisture Loss and wilting
>Spoilage due to invation of bacterias, Fungi, and yeast.
>Undesirable growth such as sprouting in root crops and tubers.
>Respiration rates of the commodity
Pree- Cooling process of the Produces..
The following are the methods to be done during pre cooling.. But before pree cooling to be done the following three factors should be considered
>Temperature of produces at the harvest
>The physiology of the produces..the rapid respiring commodities having short post Harvest life should be cooled more rapidly as compared to those with longer Post Harvest Life Produces
> The desired Post Harvest Life of the Produces.
The produces may be Cooled by means of Cold air( room cooling, Forced air Cooling) , Cold water ( hydro cooling), Direct Contact with ice, Evaporation of water from the produce ( Vacuum cooling, Evaporative Cooling).
Once the pre cooling has done correctly, they should be packed well to the improved container that does not have any source of injury like nails, sharp edges of wood. The prefered containers shound be made up of plastic material than of wood material.
Example of matured Avocados that are harvested and stored in the plastic
Containers ready for transportation to the market.
•REDUCTION OF POST HARVESTING LOSSES DURING TRANSPORTATION OF HORTICULTURAL CROPS.
Transportation on Road way. The losses that inccured during road transportation can be reduced in several ways, mostly important are modification of trucks used to transport fresh produce, handling and stowage practices.
The trucks used in transportation of fresh produce.
>Closed vehicles without refrigeration should not being used to carry fresh produce except for very short Journeys.
>A second whited painted roof can be fixed as a radiation shield 8-10cm above the main roof to reflect suns heat and help to keep produces Cool.
>The open sided or half boarded trucks can be fitted with a roof on frame. The open sides can be fitted with canvas curtains which can be rolled up or moved aside in sections to allow loading and unloading at any point around the vehicle. Such curtains will protect the fresh produces from the elements but till allow for ventilation
>Loading and Unloading of Vehicles should be properly supervised to prevent careless handling of packages.
>Stowage should be carefully done to avoid any collapse of the stow during transport.
>Packages should not be stacked higher than the maximum capacity as recommended by the manufacture otherwise the bottom layers may be collapsed under the weight of above produces.
>Packed produces should be protected from sunlight and rain at all the times including during loading and unloading.
> Packages should be loaded on dunnage or pallet on the beds of Vehicles In order to allow the circulation of air around the stack during transportation.
>Avoiding overpacking and underpacking of fresh produces to prevent mechanical Damage.
I hope this topic will help you to reduce the losses to your Horticultural produces...
The next section will be Processing and
PRESERVATION OF FRESH HORTICULTURAL PRODUCES..
