Post Harvest Management of Horticultural Crops

Need for Post harvest technology

Need for Post harvest technology
Fruits, vegetables and ornamentals are ideally harvested based on optimum eating or visual quality. However, since they are living biological entities, they will deteriorate after harvest. The rate of deterioration varies greatly among products depending on their overall rate of metabolism, but for many it can be rapid. For example marketing chains where produce is transported from farm to end user with in a short time period, the rate of PH deterioration is of little consequences. However, with the increasing remoteness of production areas from population centers, the time lag from farm to market is considerable. The deliberate storage of certain produce to capture better return adds to this time delay between farm and end user, by extending the marketing periods into times of shorter supply. Thus a modern marketing chain puts increasing demands on produce and creates the need for the PH techniques that allows retention of quality over an increasingly longer period.

Harvest: It is a specific and single deliberate action to separates the food stuff with or with out non edible portion from its growth medium.

Example:

• Plucking of F &V - Reaping of cereals
• Lifting of fish from water - lifting of tuber or roots from soil etc.

Postharvest – all the succeeding action after harvest are defined as post-harvest technique. From this period of time all action is enters the process of preparation for final consumption.

Examples:

• Pre cooling - waxing
• Cleaning/washing - chemical treatments
• Trimming/sorting - packaging
• Curing, - transportation
• Grading - storage, ripening and distribution
‘The extending the PH life of horticultural produce requires knowledge of all the factors that can lead to loss of quality or generation of unsalable material. The field of study that adds to and uses this knowledge in order to develop affordable and effective technologies that minimizes the rate of deterioration is known as postharvest technology.’
Post harvest technology is inter-disciplinary "science and technique" applied to horticultural/agri produce after harvest for its protection, conservation, processing, packaging, distribution, marketing, and utilization to meet the food and nutritional requirements of the people in relation to their needs.
Hence thorough understanding of the structure, composition, biochemistry and physiology of horticultural produce is essential for PH technologist.