The importance of post-harvest technology

Fruit and vegetables crops are much less hardy

and are mostly quickly perishable, and if care is
not taken in their harvesting, handling and
transport, they will soon decay and become unfit
for human consumption.
Production losses in developing countries are
about 20-45% of production. Reduction in this
wastage would be of great significance to growers
and consumers.

What are the principal causes of losses?

All fruits, vegetables and root crops are living
plant parts containing 65 to 95 percent water, and
they continue their living processes after harvest.
Their post-harvest life depends on the rate at
which they use up their stored food reserves and
their rate of water loss. When food and water
reserves are exhausted, the produce dies and
decays. Anything that increases the rate of this
process may make the produce uneatable before it
can be used. The principal causes of loss are:

1- Environmental factors
Deterioration by environmental factors occurs
when fresh produce is subjected to unsuitable
temperature, atmospheric humidity, light,
ethylene, and atmospheric composition .
This may cause unpalatable flavours, failure to
ripen or other changes in the living processes of
the produce, making it unfit for use.

2- Mechanical damage
Poor harvesting practices, over packing of field
marketing containers, careless handling of fresh
produce (such as dropping or throwing or
walking on produce) causes internal bruising,
which results in abnormal physiological damage
or splitting and skin breaks, thus rapidly
increasing water loss and the rate of
physiological breakdown. Skin breaks also
provide sites for infection by disease organisms
causing decay.

3- Diseases and pests

Fresh produce can become infected before or after
harvest by diseases in the air, soil and water. Some
diseases are able to penetrate the unbroken skin of
produce; others require an injury in order to cause
infection. Damage of produce is probably the
major cause of loss of fresh produce.

The objective of applying postharvest

technology to harvested fruits and vegetables
are:
1- to maintain quality (appearance, texture, flavor,
nutritive value and safety) ;
2- to reduce losses between harvest and
consumption.
3- to keep the harvested produce in good condition
until it is consumed or sold.

Postharvest operations

Determined of maturity standers

Harvesting crops at the proper maturity allows
handlers to begin their work with the best possible
quality produce. Produce harvested too early may
lack flavor and may not ripen properly, while
produce harvested too late may be overripe. The
following are some examples of maturity index:

1- Potato, onion, and garlic:

Tops (leaves) beginning to dry out.
2- tomatoes:
Seeds slipping when fruit is cut, or green color
turning pink
3- Cauliflower and Broccoli
Bud cluster compact (overmature if loose)
4- Lettuce
Big enough before flowering

Harvesting technique
Harvesting is the gathering of plant parts that are
of commercial interest. These include: Fruits - e.g.
tomatoes, peppers, etc.; root crops - e.g. beets,
carrots etc; Leafy vegetables - spinach and
lettuce; Bulbs - onions or garlic; Tubers potatoes; stems - asparagus; and Inflorescences broccoli, cauliflower etc.
Vegetables for the fresh market are hand harvested
while vegetables for processing or other crops
grown on a large scale are mainly harvested
mechanically.

Harvesting can be performed by hand or

mechanically. However, for some crops - e.g.
onions, potatoes, carrots and others - it is possible
to use a combination of both systems. In such
cases, the mechanical loosening of soil helps hand
harvesting.

1- Hand- harvesting
Hand-harvesting is usual where vegetables are at
various stages of maturity such as green bean,
strawberry and okra.
Advantage
1- Reduce mechanical damage of fruits;
2- Humans are able to select the produce at its
correct stage of ripening and handle it carefully.
Disadvantage
1- Costly in large farms
2- Labours management

Example for hand harvesting:

1- leaves only (spinach): leaves cut by knife
2- Above-ground part of the plant (cabbage,
lettuce): the main stem is cut through with a knife,
and trimming is done in the field);
3- Bulbs (green onions): immature green onions
can usually be pulled from the soil by hand.

2- Mechanical harvesting
Mechanical-harvesting is usually viable only when
an entire crop is harvested at one time such as
tomatoes for processing, potato, sweet potato and
carrots.
Advantage
1- Speed;
2- Reduced costs per ton harvested;
Disadvantage
1- Increase mechanical damage of vegetables
2- Machine is not able to select mature fruits.

Example for mechanical harvesting:

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, tomato for
processing and carrots

Harvest recommendations
1- It is recommended to harvest during the cool
morning hours, because less energy is required
for refrigeration.
2- Harvested product needs to be kept in the
shade until the time of transportation.
3- Avoid product bruising.
4- Harvest containers should be smooth and free
of sharp edges.
5- Train harvest labour to handle produce gently
and identify correct maturity for harvest.