Present Status of Postharvest Practices and Losses of Economically Important Fruits and Vegetables in Sri Lanka
Abstract
The study was conducted to find the present status of postharvest practices and losses in selected commercially grown fruits and vegetables. Economically important four and twelve vegetables were selected. Across sectional analysis was used to analyze the present status of the postharvest practices of fruits and vegetables in the country through questionnaire survey and direct observations. Information related to the postharvest operations were collected from 1829 of main actors of the supply chain; farmers, collectors, whole sellers, transporters and retailers. Loss assessment study was performed in major six perishable supply chains in the country. Weight losses of commodities were measured at different stages and results were compared with previous findings. Most of farmers well aware about maturity indices of fruits and vegetables, and majority of them consider correct maturity for harvesting selected crops. But, 5-31 % of farmers do not consider maturity indices. Further, small scale farmers generally do not have adequate facilities to sort and grade their harvest. The close truck category is dominant in transporting majority of commodities while guava, bitter guar, long bean and potato are transported in open trucks. Only around 3% of fruits and vegetables were found transported in refrigerated trucks. Commodities are packed four types packaging methods during post harvest handling; polysack bags, plastic crates, wooden boxes and corrugated fibreboard boxes. Most of vegetables (76% in average) are still transported in polysack bags. However, 94 % of papaya is transported in plastic crates while 54 % of guava is also transported using plastic crates and corrugated fiberboard boxes. All the actors mainly use polysack bags for transporting commodities. Majority of stakeholders in Sri Lankan fruit supply chain have adopted to use safe packaging methods. Previous loss assessment studies conducted in Sri Lanka exhibited that post harvest loss of fruits and vegetables were 30 – 40%. However, according to the present study, postharvest loss of fruits remain at 15-20% and it is 20-30% in vegetables which could be considered as considerable reduction due to many programs launched during last two decades.
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Introduction
Agriculture plays a major role in developing the countries. It directly affects on food safety and national food security. But, postharvest sector of agricultural crops still lags behind creating many problems. The postharvest loss and inappropriate postharvest practices during supply and value chains of agricultural crops leads to low prices at farm gate and high prices at consumer level as well as to low quality of produce. And also, this has led to less profit in agriculture which creates less employment or unemployment especially in rural community (Dharmathilake et al. 2020).
Furthermore, many intermediaries are playing an active and a major role in the supply chain of fresh commodities in Sri Lanka. Farmers, collectors, transporters, whole sellers, retailers, processors are the main actors of the supply chain and 30-40% amount of postharvest loss has been identified at each of these points (Rajapaksha et al. 2021). Many factors contribute to this situation. Some of them are harvesting practices, maturity at harvesting, handling and transportation, lack of storage facilities, lack of processing and value addition done, etc. (Iordachescu et al. 2019). Reducing this post-harvest food loss will become increasingly important over the coming decades to help sustainably feed a growing human population (Buzby and Hyman, 2012). Generation of new technologies required to rectify these malpractices is highly essential. Furthermore, transmission of technologies to relevant stakeholders is also vital in order to reduce the postharvest loss, popularize using appropriate technologies etc. However, in order to do so, proper understanding of the existing situation is a must. This will facilitate proper planning and execution of development activities and further research aimed towards the uplifting of the industry. Although some of the practices are common in some crops, many vary depending on the crop, cultivation patterns, persons involved etc. During last two decades, many loss reduction measured have taken in national level and appropriate postharvest technologies have also been introduced to agriculture supply chain such as awareness creation, safe packaging and ripening methods etc. however the impact was not assessed in national level. Therefore, a more detailed study was needed to identify these postharvest practices and losses in a more generalized form which would represent the whole scenario. National Institute of Post Harvest Management (NIPHM) carried out a study on present status of postharvest practices and losses in selected commercially grown fruits and vegetables.
Conclusion
As depicted by the results and compared previous studies, the adaptation to the use of postharvest technologies by stakeholders for fruits and vegetables in Sri Lanka was comparatively higher at different operational stages. Majority of farmers are aware of correct maturity indices and they already have adapted to use them. Findings further exhibited that use of safe packaging materials for transportation of fruits has significantly expanded. However, introduction of safe packaging for vegetables should be further required. Postharvest loss of fruits in Sri Lanka at present is around 15-20% while it is 20-30% in vegetables saving considerable volume of commodities after harvesting.
