Important reasons for occurrence of more post harvest losses in perishable commodities such as fruits and vegetable crops in developing countries are primarily attributed to lack of infrastructure for cold chain. We never discuss cold chain as a whole for adoption. Cold chain includes infrastructure for grading, sorting, pre-cooling, refer vans for transport, ripening chambers at destination, cold storages and primary processing facilities etc. Such facilities if created will definitely contribute for minimizing post harvest losses. In India, a special move has been started through mission approach and these days Government of India is promoting such integrated cold chain units with subsidy provision of 35%.

Please have a look at some attachments..

Dear Dr. Anoop Kumar Srivastava,

Thank you for this helpful documents.

Please this links:

http://www.actioncontrelafaim.org/sites/default/files/publications/fichiers/technical_paper_phl__.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5296677/

http://www.ideas42.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PostHarvestLoss_FINAL.pdf

http://www.agri-learning-ethiopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Report-FTF-meeting-Reducing-Post-Harvest-Losses-sf.pdf

https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Events/DakAgri2015/Agriculture_Industrialization_and_post-harvest_losses.pdf

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-528.pdf

Dear Dr. Gonzalo Galileo Rivas Platero,

I really appreciate these resourceful links on this discuss.

Many thanks Sir.

Olutosin

To answer your question,  i  have added few links that has concerned the same issue in Sri Lanka. I think those links will help you to get an idea about our practices on the similar issues in  fruits, vegetables and grains etc.  

http://ipht.lk/Publications/Wasala/Postharvest%20Losses,%20Current%20Issues%20and%20Demand%20for%20Postharvest.pdf

https://www.parliament.lk/uploads/documents/paperspresented/annual_report_institute_of_post_harvest_technology_2011.pdf

http://thakshana.nsf.ac.lk/slstic/NA-302/NA-302.pdf

http://ipht.lk/Publications/PH%20machinery.html

http://ipht.lk/Publications/Fresh%20produce%20quality.html

Thank you for sharing these links.

The main way is to invest in post harvest technology. For example, in "winter" fruits like apple and pear it can be controlled atmosphere storage. In other fruits and vegetables it can be modified atmosphere packaging. In Israel, for example, the full cost, including depreciation and interest, of fruit storage, sorting, and packaging can arrive to $0.4 per kg of sold production. The similar situation is with grain. A few examples http://www.actahort.org/books/604/604_84.htm   http://www.actahort.org/books/674/674_29.htm   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168169903000802

 Dear Drs. Gregory Yom Dim and Neelendra K. Joshi,

Thank you for sharing this valuable contributions and for your time 

To  asswer your question  I am enclosing  herewith the  related  articles  on post harvest losses. It is also suggested that post  harvest  losses can be minimized through propeŕ handling, efficient  system of marketing, propeŕ  management at each stages of producers along with enable  environments until   and unlessthe produce reached  to  the hand  of ultimate  consumers. 

Another solution is to emphasis the core areas of Agricultural Production Value Addition which includes: Processing, Transportation and Storage. 

Governmental and Non Governmental agencies should ensure that these value addition approaches are made accessible and attractive to farmers. It is guaranteed that provided farmers will  make extra gains by adopting these approaches, they will adhere to them and that will reduce Post Harvest Losses. 

My Opinion!!!

Dear Izuogu, thank you for your contribution to the discuss.

Important reasons for occurrence of more post harvest losses in perishable commodities such as fruits and vegetable crops in developing countries are primarily attributed to lack of infrastructure for cold chain. We never discuss cold chain as a whole for adoption. Cold chain includes infrastructure for grading, sorting, pre-cooling, refer vans for transport, ripening chambers at destination, cold storages and primary processing facilities etc. Such facilities if created will definitely contribute for minimizing post harvest losses. In India, a special move has been started through mission approach and these days Government of India is promoting such integrated cold chain units with subsidy provision of 35%.

 Really appreciate the contribution of Dr. Suresh to the question especially the aspect of cold chain.

Thank you for your time sir.

Olutosin

In addition to other contributors' comments, I will strongly advocate for massive investment in the aspect of small and medium-scale enterprises in the area of processing which will mop-up the glut for value addition. These could be sited more in the rural settings where production of these agricultural produce occur. 

A holistic analysis of the production and postharvest processes is required to pinpoint the main intervention points to minimize losses. Maybe this resource can be useful: http://www.iica.int/es/publications/metodolog%C3%ADa-de-evaluaci%C3%B3n-de-cadenas-agroalimentarias-para-la-identificaci%C3%B3n-de

Thank you for your valuable contributions Prof. Muhammad and Viviana Palmieri for the links.

Olutosin

To find out the solutions for post harvest losses, it's important to know the reasons for post harvest losses. If the crops are perishable crops (horticulture crops), then their life time is very short. If the crops are cereal crops then they may have higher life cycle but even they are susceptible to damage.

Important is to know the life time and crop and having suitable storage systems for respective crops. For example, higher perishable crops need to be stored in cold storages while other cereal crops can be stored in godowns which will have less maintenance charge.

Another important thing is to understand the supply demand in respect to each and every. It may be that one crop is having high post harvest losses while other may be in shortage and you need to import it at higher prices. So, agriculture in the country should be balanced on the basis of supply and demand. This will not only decrease post harvest losses while also increase the income to the farmers.

The post-harvest losses are about 15-30% of the production and constitute an important source of inefficiency in our agrofood chains.  To reduce this inefficiency, we need to improve both our storage, processing and consumption systems in order to increase their yields. Agroindustry and agrobusiness promotion are the key elements to solve the problem.  

 I agree with you Dr. Suresh K Malhotra regarding to the packing houses availability, but as you know this issue will also increase the cost of fruits and vegetables and so on will raise the price, we have to find an alternative to reduce these losses which reache in some cases to 40%/

Really agree with Dr. Masnat All Hiary on providing alternative ways of these losses that may not necessarily jack up prices of these agricultural produce/ products.

Thank you for your contribution.

Olutosin

We have conducted a study to estimate post-harvest losses for a group of fruit crops including peach, apricot, and apple, to identify the causes of these losses, and to investigate the existing post-harvest systems for fruit crops in Jordan. The losses were investigated at three levels; namely farmer, wholesaler, and retail levels. A descriptive analysis was done through the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). Results showed that the highest percentages of losses were identified at retail level; the losses were 17.1%, 14.2%, and 9.5% for peach, apricot, and apple respectively. The results revealed relatively high percentages of losses at all levels, the total losses were 42.3%, 26.5%, and 11.2% for peach, apricot, and apple respectively.

The results showed that the losses in studied fruit crops were due to the lack of farmers' knowledge about post-harvest technologies, such as pre-cooling, washing, sorting, grading, and cooled storage. This study recommends developing extension programs to train farmers on the use of post harvest technologies in order to meet the international standards in terms of desirable cultivars, quality, fruit size and suitable date of production. Moreover, the current study recommends facilitating the establishment of private marketing companies responsible for post-harvest processes by direct contract with farmers to market their productions.

Thank you for sharing your personal findings on this discussion. I would appreciate if you can share the full research findings with us.

Olutosin

The post harvest loss is the main problem agrobusiness is supposed to solve for Africa. To minimise post harvest loss, which is presently about 30% of the agricultural production in Africa, we have to do the following:

- Harvesting at the indicated time;

- Developing improved storage and conservation techniques;

- Developing equipements for high yield food processing; and

- Promoting good attitude at consumption that prevent food waste and loss. 

These actions are also interesting to increase productivity, revenues and competitiveness in the continent. They can be focused on rice, plantain, maize, yam, cocoyam, cassava, tomato, mango, and orange for example.

Thank you Dr. Houngbo for the needed input concerning the discussion.

Olutosin

Post harvest losses could be minimized through following ways;

- timely harvesting by adopting scientific methods,

- conservation of harvested produce in modern store with improved store management practices and

- Development of processing industries.

Developing product  basedmarket  .adopting scientific  method of  harvesig and establishment of processing  industry  based on  potentials  of particular product could be  one of the  way  to minimise the losses. 

 Thank you Drs. Ardeshna N. J, Tariq, and Meeri Kumari for your invaluable contributions to the discussion.

Olutosin

market led production along withproper linkage to the market. enabling environment for those who are unreached I.e provision to reached institutions rather than farmers reached to institutions.

We should also consider establishment co-operative, crop insurance , processing options coupled value addition , should also be a part of reducing post-harvest losses..The in any losses simply adds to your production and productivity...

Thank you Drs. Meera Kumari and Anoop Kumar for your invaluable contributions to this discussion.

Olutosin

If you have access to journals, check for a recent publication: ON THE MEASUREMENT OF FOOD WASTE

by MARC F. BELLEMARE, METIN C¸AKIR, HIKARU HANAWA PETERSON, LINDSEY NOVAK, AND JETA RUDIAmer. J. Agr. Econ. 99(5): 1148–1158; doi: 10.1093/ajae/aax034

Published online June 19, 2017

Also check the conference paper by Maximo Torero: Conference Paper Reality of Food Losses: A New Measurement Methodology

Thank you so much dear Dr.Joaquin Arias for this helpful contributions and the all-important links. Really appreciate you sir.

Olutosin A. Otekunrin

Thank you Dr. Meeri Kumari for your valuable contribution.

creation of market infrastructure from export point of view such as creation of pre_cooling,cold storage,air cargo,packing house Tec may be taken up by the efforts of central and state government.

Thank you so much dear Dr. Meera Kumari for contribution concerning functional market infrastructure to reduce agricultural produce unwarranted losses.

Olutosin