Post-harvest farm operation losses in paddy-A case study of Kathua district

The present study was undertaken to estimate the losses of paddy during harvesting and threshing operations; to examine various types of storage structures used by the farmers for paddy and their storage losses and to study the loss of paddy during marketing by the farmer. The study brought out that 90 percent of the paddy area was harvested manually using sickle and the rest about 10 per cent with harvest-combine. The harvesting loss was high in case of sickle harvesting. In the case of paddy, the harvesting loss with sickle was 21.07 and 6.25 kg per acre for combine harvesting. The threshing loss of paddy was about 9 kg per acre. The study brought out that storage of paddy in kohl was the most common followed by bharola and metal bin. The storage loss of paddy for family consumption and seed was 1.86 and 1.55 per cent, respectively. The marketing loss of paddy 0.36 per cent respectively of the quantity sold.