Assessment of Post-Harvest Loss and Waste for Date Palms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Estimated dates loss at harvest time include shees & besr, eating by birds, falling, insects and dust mite, and healthy fruits of three cultivars from the date palm orchards in al-Ahsa Oasis (Khalas, Shishi and Ruzeize), in Al-Qaseem (Sukkary, Khudry and Segae), in Madinah (Safawi, Anbara, Ajweh). In Riyadh (Khalas, Sagei and Nabtet Seif). The highest losses during harvest time in Al-Ahsa were in Khals, then comes Shishi then Ruzeize. In Qaseem, the least affected variety was Sukkari, then Khudri then Segae. In Medina, Anbara was the most affected variety then comes Safawi then Ajweh. In Riyadh, the most affect variety was Nabtet Seif then comes Khalas then Segae. The average level of loss during the marketing phase was about 5-10 % in most varieties and locations except Ajweh in Riadh (<5%), and Shagra in Qassem (16-20%). The major causes of waste were the dates’ small size, and cuts and browses.
Photography analysis showed that dates are dramatically affected by various pest infestation and non-pathological disorders. The average of general dates disorders or dates damages was 12.6%, which represents the percentage of dates loss of most commonly ones in the major date production regions in Saudi Arabia. In addition, eleven dates variety commercially available were collected at Alahsa dates retail market which produced by the major production regions; Alahsa, Riyadh, Qaseem and Madina. The data showed that the average of general dates disorders or dates damage were the highest for Shishi and Shbibi in AlAhsa (33%), while the lowest was for Ajweh in Medina (2.7% only).
Keywords
Download Options
Introduction
Saudi Arabia is one of the leading palm dates production and consumption countries, and to a lesser extent, in export, as they ranked, in 2014, third in the world in terms of production (13.9%).
The planted area with date palm trees in the Kingdom in 2014 was about 107 thousand hectares, while the number of palm trees in the same year reached nearly 28 million palm trees. Palm trees are grown in different regions of the Kingdom, which is characterized by the diversity of climate. The most important palm growing areas are the Riyadh region, Qasim, Alahsa and Medina. General. Authority of Statistics, (2015).
New date palm plantations are established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) which will cause an increase in dates’ production which necessitates the adoption of more efficient post-harvest handling, marketing and processing. Dates in the gulf area are considered a backbone for food security and water security in these countries, so it is very important to decrease the level of waste and loss in this sector.
The major problem of the production of dates in the KSA is related to dates processing, where about 7.4% of the production only is processed, though, mainly packing activities, using unspecialized equipment in the field of date sector, but they are also used for other fruits, and therefore the quality is not at the required level.
(Gustavsson et al., 2011) defined post-harvest loss as the decrease of edible food throughout the supply chain that leads to the decrease of edible food for human consumption, while waste refers to the loss at the end of the food chain, i.e. retail and final consumption.
Kitinoja (2016) summarized causes of food loss and waste in the following: a) absence or weaknesses of quality standards, b) Surplus in supply of food c) Lack of appropriate storage facilities, d) deficiency in packing material. Another study was conducted on Harvesting and Post Harvesting Handling of dates to explore the causes of losses, (Kader and Hussein, 2009), where they showed that the main causes of high postharvest losses were fermentation, insect infestation, birds, and mechanical damage.
Food quality is affected by climate conditions such as temperature and light intensity. Moreover, soil type, the rootstock used for fruit trees, mulching, irrigation, fertilization, and other cultural practices affects directly the level of losses in the crops. (Kader, 2012). Post-harvest loss and waste of dates are caused, among other factors, by insects, mites, birds, rats, mollusks and bats or flying foxes. There are other factors that increase dates losses such as physical damages during harvesting, handlings, incidence of physical and physiological disorders and pathogens also contribute to the losses. The date palm farms in The Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), mainly in KSA, are characterized by high post-harvest losses due to fermentation, insect infestation, birds and mechanical damage. So as to reduce post-harvest losses it is suggested to improve food security and returns to investment in agricultural research, which will lead to lower food prices, and higher food availability. Rosegrant et. al. (2016). Moreover, loss in food products is considered as loss in resources that produce them, noticing that in these resources such as suitable land and water are limited. Beretta et. al. (2013).
A study conducted by AlQurash (2012) found that pre-harvest fruit drop is a serious problem of some date palm cultivars growing in hot arid regions in Saudi Arabia. Another study was conducted on Harvesting and Post Harvesting Handling of Dates (Kader and Hussein, 2009), they found that there is a need to decrease the postharvest losses caused by fungi, insects, birds, cuts and browses.
In Saudi Arabia, field storage of dates and sun drying, as it is the case in many date-producing countries, subject date to infestation by stored-product insects. Insects cause quantitative and qualitative losses of dates through changing chemical composition, and subsequently, the nutritive value of dates (Scott, 1991).
Insect infestations of dates are most likely started from the field based on certain organic volatile compounds (OVC) from mature stage of dates which paly a fundamental role in insect attraction. The major insect pests attack dates either on the palm tree or during sun drying of dates in field, standing dates awaiting transportation, in storehouses, factories and packing houses. Accordingly, to prevent such infestation in the field and during transit is an important angle in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of stored dates. There are many preventive and agro-technical methods highly recommended in such respect: dates early harvesting, collect the ripe fruits firsthand and to avoid leaving it on the trees for long periods to prevent insect infestation, use of plastic netting, papers or cloths to cover fruit bunches on trees and harvested dates. Moreover, rapid transportation, clean disinfested containers and inspection of dates while on the tree. In the storehouses, precaution should have be taken: disinfestation of the storehouse using recommended pesticide, cracks sealing, repairing of doors and windows to be insect-proof. Avoidance of mixing fallen dates on the ground with clean ones. In addition, there are certain techniques to protect stored dates, fumigation of dates in storehouses by aluminum phosphide or ethyl formate, modified atmosphere, microwave technology, ozonation and biological control (Abo-El-Saad et al., 2011; Abo-El-Saad et al., 2012; Abo-El-Saad and ElShafie 2013).
This Project aims at evaluating the magnitude and causes of date palm postharvest waste and loss in the main producing areas in the KSA. Moreover, it evaluates the losses in water resource, and fertilizers used to produce these losses.
Conclusion
Saudi Arabia is one of the leading countries in the world in producing dates. on the other hand, its exports do not match the large production of this crop.
The level of loss at harvesting time differs from region to region and from variety to another. For example, the loss in khalas variety during harvesting in AlAhsa was about 38% compared to Ruzaze which had loss at only 7.5%. On the other hand, the loos in Sukkari in Qassim reached about 0.8% and for Segei 2%.
The level of waste during the marketing phase differs from region to region and from from to variety to other variety, for example, the percentage of loss in most of the selected varieties in Qasim was5-10%. On the other hand, the majority level of waste of Khalas variety in Qasim was about 5-10% while in AlAhsa was less than 5%. The source of loss in Sukkari variety caused by small size constituted one third of the sources for loss while in Riyadh, cuts and browses constituted two thirds of the cause of loss. The small size of Berhi in Qasim constituted about one half of loss causes while cuts and prowess constituted about half the loss causes in Riyadh. The insects were the major cause of loss in Alahsa for Khalas variety (87%).
Moreover, insects were the major causes of loss in Khudry in Qasim (60%). The study also found that pest infestation and non-pathological damages of dates were relatively high, reaching 12.19% in dates of Saudi Arabia at both level, either dates which the government buying from farmers through national date factories or dates commercially available at dates retail marketing respectively.
The average water consumption of one dunum planted with date palm trees is estimated at 23 thousand cubic meter, then the estimated average loss of water due to dates loss is about 190 thousand cubic meter of irrigation water.
The main problems that faced the study team was the absence of landlords which made it difficult to get information from the workers who do not know the detailed needed information.
