Impact of Post-Harvest Losses

1. Nutrition

• Fruits and vegetables are rich in essential vitamins and minerals crucial for human nutrition.
• Losses during transit from harvest to consumer reduce the quantity and quality of this valuable food source, affecting overall nutritional security.

2. Economy

• Careless harvesting and rough handling lead to bruising and scarring of perishable crops, reducing their market value.
• Damaged produce is less attractive to international buyers, leading to decreased export profits and potential reputational damage for the exporting country.
• To mitigate these losses, it’s crucial to raise awareness among growers, farm workers, managers, traders, and exporters about the economic consequences of post-harvest losses.
• There is a need for improved infrastructure, including storage, handling, grading, packing, transportation, and marketing facilities, supported by both public and private sectors.

Technologies for Minimizing Post-Harvest Losses

Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable, but scientific harvesting and handling can reduce losses due to physical damage, spoilage from insects, and microbial growth. Here are some key technologies:

1. Waxing Protective coating for fruits and vegetables to reduce moisture loss and respiration rate, thus extending storage life.
2. Evaporative Cool Storage A cost-effective, short-term storage solution at the farm level to reduce shriveling and extend storage life, helping farmers achieve better returns.
3. Pre-Packaging Controls transpiration and respiration rates, maintaining freshness at ambient and low temperatures. It is a low-cost, readily available solution that benefits both producers and consumers.
4. Cold Storage Maintains low temperatures to reduce respiration rates and delay ripening, allowing long-term storage of fruits and vegetables.
5. Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) Adjusts the internal atmosphere of packaging to extend shelf life. For example, MAP extends the storage life of Cavendish bananas, carrots, capsicum, green chili, and tomatoes significantly under ambient conditions.
6. Controlled Atmosphere (CA) Storage Maintains an artificial atmosphere with high CO₂ and low O₂ levels to reduce respiration and delay aging, especially when combined with low temperatures.
7. Cold Chain Ensures temperature-controlled handling from farm to consumer, reducing wastage and retaining the quality of fresh produce.
8. Irradiation Utilizes ionizing radiation to delay ripening, minimize insect infestation, retard microbial spoilage, and control sprouting and rotting during storage. It is also effective as a disinfection treatment against fruit flies and seed weevils.
9. Edible Coatings Made from edible proteins, polysaccharides, or lipids, these coatings reduce post-harvest losses, minimize energy requirements, and enhance the product’s structural integrity. They also control the migration of gases, moisture, and flavors, inhibiting microbial growth.

Other Practices

• Implementing grading, washing, cleaning, and scientific harvesting at the farm level.
• Expanding cold storage to tropical fruits and vegetables.
• Developing appropriate packaging materials for export and modified atmosphere packaging.
• Enhancing value addition to provide better returns to farmers and high-quality products to consumers.
• Utilizing processing waste to create natural food colors, fiber, single-cell proteins, and food-grade enzymes.