Freshly harvested Crops (at commercial maturity) need to be handle with care, postharvest losses is not merely the damage which is occurring through bruises, cracks, or deterioration per se but also the nutritional composition of the produce which is a matter of great concern. Food security need to be intensify so that to promote quality of products.
Moreover, one need to know not only to have this Crops in abundant but also to able to safeguard the nutritional composition, because apart of being food for body building it serves as medicinal and many people administered them as source of Vitamin etc. HIV/AIDS patients, Malnutrition and so forth need them as empathizer and minerals. The losses begin from harvesting and handling in store, when reaching the wholesaler, retailer before reaching the final consumer its depreciate along this chain.
The successibility to minimize Postharvest losses laid on simple improve technological practice which will be implemented and to be affordable to small scale farmer because they cannot cater for the complex one.
In Sub-sahara Africa where the temperature is very hot there is high amount of damage frequently due to negligence of Government Agencies coming in to fund the internal system to get some means of brainstorming the farmers. The Extension Officers who can reach the farmer were no longer knowledgeable to carry out the task of easing the impending problem of losses. I suggest Postharvest Technology to be a Curriculum beginning from Secondary Education where students will learn on how to determine and practices use of maturity indices to identify proper harvest period, Benefit of improved containers to protect damage during handling and transportation, the use of shade, sorting/grading to enhance market value and use of on-farm storage in every secondary school. In case of the farmers that did not school the extension officer will put them through and encourage and teach Him/Her more about marketing and to take more responsibility to their Crops after harvesting, target to reduce losses. If this is carry out and adopt surplus of food will be all year round in the World community, and the surplus they were the cheaper it become.
Another lapses from the stakeholders is there is no available scholarship for the people who have key interest to further their studies in this field. Sub –Sahara Africa where left behind and we that are in the region have a challenges face us because we were not skilled enough to face the challenges of Postharvest losses. The stakeholders need to encourage young scientist by offering scholarship to motivate them to go and study this course by so doing we can bridge the gap to reduce losses and ravage food availability to keep pace with the increasing world population. Pest save as factors of losses which include Rodents, Insects, microorganism also Moisture content, Humidity plays their role on the other hand, the most problems we encountered in cereals and pulses grain which also resulted to so many losses in store grain, is lack of awareness, farmers were exercising wrong ideas, most of their stores are not well insulated and it leads to infiltration, dampness of the wall partition, they did not have a knowledge of how to site their storage systems they construct them on water way and during raining season run-off water will wash out the side of the store in form of erosion, or in the rainy windy day water splashes through the wall partitions which were poorly constructed.
They don’t use to keep their produce on shade before storing due to ignorant, these lead to increase in the rate of respiration and resulted to Hot-Spot, condensation etc and when combine with humidity in the store will cause Caking and infestation of microorganism which will bring about loss of flavor and nutritional value, if this affect the grain I don’t think if something will remain good in the store produce.
In every region we knew our people lapses and capability in the field of Postharvest Technology and their social behaviors so one need to improve when performing a similar task.
Whereas, in horticultural produce the Climacteric produce were found to be very difficult to control among the farmers due to it ethylene (C2H4) production in the hormone of the crops, while this triggering by hot temperature which hastened the ripeness that lead to senescence stage of deterioration .
These indicate that flesh resistance to O2 diffusion in horticultural commodities may not be negligible and therefore in considering this Modified/Control atmosphere has to be taking as measures. But as mentioned eallier on, the attributed lack of awareness and understanding lure the farmers to losses.
Nevertheless, reaching the unreached is among the task ahead because farmers need some traditional practices to control ethylene action, such as preventing the plant being exposed to biologically action of ethylene, prevent it from responding to perceived ethylene, controlling exposure to ethylene, and to prevent the plant tissue from perceiving the ethylene that is in its surrounding atmosphere or that is being produced by tissue. Although, application of ethylene in some fruits increased the quality of mature harvested cultivars and withstand the duration of transport and then treated with ethylene gas (C2H4 ) to promote ripening before sale. For these reason these are gleams to the knowledge of farmers, one need to brainstorm Him/Her with innovation of how to reduce losses to nearest minimum as we know that ethylene stimulate many metabolic activities in horticultural produce including respiration, Oxygen (O2) use can be increased, as it goes high, Carbon dioxide (CO2) also rise and produces heat which resulted to Hot-Spot in store.
RECOMMEDATION
I would suggest the Triple bagging system of Purdue Improve Cowpea Storage (PICS) to be introduce to cowpea farmer to use them in storing their Cowpea, as we know Cowpea weevil or Bruchid cause a lot of destruction to farmers when they did not store their beans properly, the Adult live 5-10 days. Each female lays 40-60 eggs and glued to the cowpea seed till hatches and they feed on the cowpea and emerge an Adult after 3-4 weeks. Triple bagging have 99% of controlling their infestations.
Postharvest technologist should work hand in hand with:
- Non Governmental Organizations.
- Community Leaders.
- Producers and Farmers Organizations.
To popularized any innovation that would reduce losses, we should use demonstration in village to impart “Cost Benefit Analysis”, sensitization through means of radio using posters and Flyers.
Also to motivate the farmer through marketability of His/Her produce so that when you come next He/She will be eager and willing to receive your instruction (Innovation), and increasing of small producer’s income. Mind, sometimes the farmer due to lack of knowledge and affordability to cater to construction complex storage system He/She have no option than to sale His/Her produce immediately after harvesting cheaper to reach people in the community, and when the day go by He/She will remain poorer and the reach get reached.
Submitted to:
Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
By: Samuel Ayuba Hamisu
Postharvest Education Foundation (PEF) USA (International Consultant).
Address: Yobe State College of Agriculture, Gujba, Dept. of Agric. Techn. P.M.B. 1104 Damaturu.
Country: Nigeria, West Africa.
Date: 25th April, 2013
Samuel Ayuba Hamisu