Postharvest Handling and Assessment of Losses of Freshly Harvested Selected Vegetables

The immense diversity in agro-climatic condition across the country enables India to produce large amount of vegetables with current production around 71 million MT, however, per capita availability is only about 180 gram as against recommended 300 gm per capita. This is due to huge losses of vegetables after harvest per year, nearly 40% fruits and vegetables are lost. Several factors are responsible for the damages & losses of the fresh produce. One of the major problems is lack of awareness and knowledge about how to handle fresh harvested vegetables. Proper postharvest handling can reduce losses of freshly vegetables and also maintained the product quality up to final consumption. Postharvest handling and losses of tomato, brinjal, okra, and leafy vegetables were evaluated from harvest to consumer market. This study was taken to identify postharvest operations followed and assessment of losses at various post-harvest handling stages; at farmers, APMC and retailers level. A standard questionnaire was prepared for collection of data and survey. At farmers level losses were observed in the range of 6-10, 2-6, 1-2, and 0.5 percent in tomato, brinjal, okra and leafy vegetables respectively. While 5-10, 5-8, 3-5 and 3.5 percent losses were observed at APMC level in leafy vegetables, tomato, brinjal and okra respectively. Whereas losses in the range of 9-16, 6-10, 2-4 and 2-3 percent were observed in leafy vegetables, tomato, okra and brinjal retailers' level. Maximum losses were observed in tomato followed by leafy vegetable, brinjal and okra. This paper describes the various postharvest handling of tomato, brinjal, okra and leafy vegetables at three different levels.