| Abstract |
Over the last two decades, India’s food system with population surge has been <br/>undergoing a transformation with increase in demand for high value fruits and <br/>vegetables. However, farmers are unable to receive higher benefits from these transitions <br/>which are due to poorly developed value chain systems in the various post-harvest <br/>management practices of perishable crops like vegetables. The study entitled “Estimation <br/>of post-harvest losses for vegetables in Palakkad district” was aimed to examine and <br/>estimate the nature and extent of post-harvest losses for vegetables.<br/>Using time series data on the area, production and productivity of vegetables in <br/>India and area under vegetable cultivation in Kerala and Palakkad district, compound <br/>annual growth rates were calculated. The major vegetables like bitter gourd, snake gourd <br/>and vegetable cowpea were selected for the study in proportion to their production to the <br/>total vegetables. The respondents were selected using multi-stage random sampling <br/>technique. Thus, a sample of 180 farmers (60 for each vegetable) and fifteen vegetable <br/>traders from two blocks i.e. Chittur and Nenmara were selected for the study.<br/>The cost of cultivation for the three vegetables were worked-out using ABC cost <br/>concepts, where in, human labour accounted for the highest percentage (29 percent each <br/>for bitter gourd and snake gourd and nearly 49 per cent for vegetable cowpea) to total <br/>cost, in all the selected vegetables. The total cost of cultivation (cost A1) was found to be <br/>the highest in bitter gourd with ₹1,57,723 ha-1<br/>, followed by snake gourd (₹1,35,805 ha-1<br/>) <br/>and vegetable cowpea (₹1,04,916 ha-1<br/>). The benefit-cost ratios at cost C were found to be <br/>stable with 2.78 for bitter gourd, 2.41 for snake gourd and 1.92 for vegetable cowpea. <br/>Also, the major marketing channels for vegetables in the study area were identified and <br/>majority of the farmers were found marketing their produce through VFPCK.<br/>The nature and extent of post-harvest losses in vegetables were determined by <br/>classifying them into three major categories viz. physical loss, physiological loss and loss <br/>due to biotic factors. In bitter gourd, the losses were found to be 3.68 (10.2 qtl/ha), 2.1<br/>129<br/>(5.82 qtl/ha) and 6.68 (18.51 qtl/ha) percent to the total production (per hectare) in terms <br/>of physical damages, physiological deterioration and loss due to biotic factors <br/>respectively at farm level. Thus, the total loss observed in bitter gourd at farm level was <br/>about 12.46 percent (34.53 qtl/ha). At trader level, the physiological loss contributed to <br/>almost 45 percent of the total losses. Hence, the total loss in bitter gourd was observed to <br/>be 21.88 per cent. Likewise in snake gourd, the extent of losses at farm level was found <br/>to be 9 percent (26.1 qtl/ha), where the highest losses (4.74 percent) were due to biotic <br/>factors like pests and diseases prevailing in the study area. Therefore, the total loss <br/>estimated in snake gourd was 13.89 percent which included 4.89 percent of loss at trader <br/>level.<br/>In vegetable cowpea, the total loss accounted for 20.2 percent to the total <br/>production per hectare i.e. 11.53 percent at farm level and 9.15 percent at trader level. <br/>Hence, based on the nature of produce the loss due to physical damage was highest in <br/>bitter gourd whereas the loss due to physiological factors was found highest in snake <br/>gourd and loss with respect to biotic factors was found to be maximum in vegetable <br/>cowpea. And, the post-harvest losses were observed as maximum in bitter gourd followed <br/>by vegetable cowpea and snake gourd.<br/>Economic loss is obtained by addition of post-harvest loss values and value of <br/>second grade produce. The monetary loss of vegetables at farm level were also estimated <br/>by taking into consideration the prevailing prices of ₹34 (bitter gourd), ₹23 (snake <br/>gourd) and ₹32 (vegetable cowpea) (per kg). The vegetables were graded by the shape <br/>and size of the produce into standard and second grades, and it was observed that the <br/>second grade fetched only half the price of the standard grade. The post-harvest <br/>monetary losses<br/>accounted for ₹1,17,402 ha-1 in bitter gourd. Farmers tend to lose the value of their<br/>produce for second grades. Thus, the economic losses were estimated at ₹3,05,439 ha-1<br/>. <br/>Similarly, the monetary loss for snake gourd was computed as ₹60,040 ha-1<br/>, whereas the <br/>economic loss valued at ₹94,316 ha-1<br/>. In vegetable cowpea, the monetary losses and <br/>economic losses were estimated to be the same at ₹29,280 ha-1<br/>, due to undesirable <br/>second<br/>130<br/>grade produce by the traders and consumers. Therefore, the monetary losses were <br/>observed to be highest in bitter gourd (32.41 percent to total value of production per <br/>hectare) followed by snake gourd and vegetable cowpea. Using the values of the farm <br/>level losses, the monetary losses were extrapolated to block and district levels. The <br/>estimated loss values for Chittur block were ₹10.82 lakh, ₹4.43 lakh and ₹58.56 lakh in <br/>bitter gourd, snake gourd and vegetable cowpea respectively, taking the production data <br/>into consideration. In Nenmara, the losses were estimated to ₹122.27 lakh for bitter <br/>gourd, ₹56.31 lakh for snake gourd and ₹58.47 lakh for vegetable cowpea. Similarly, for <br/>Palakkad district the estimated losses were ₹152.22 lakh, ₹59.49 lakh and ₹210.78 lakh <br/>respectively.<br/>Regression analyses were used to delineate the factors responsible for losses at <br/>farm level. In bitter gourd, area under cultivation, unfavourable weather conditions, pests <br/>and diseases and use of packing materials like jute sacks and wooden baskets were found <br/>as major determinants for losses. Area under cultivation, experience in farming and <br/>prevailing pests and diseases in snake gourd were found to affect the volume of postharvest losses at farm level. Besides these, the variable, timely labour availability was <br/>also found to contribute to the losses in vegetable cowpea.<br/>The socio-economic profile of the farmers was also analysed for the study. The <br/>knowledge, perception level and practices of the farmers regarding the losses were <br/>studied using the five-point Likert type scale and it was found that majority (76 percent) <br/>of the farmers were categorized under medium level of perception. Garrett ranking <br/>technique was used to find the major constraints faced by farmers in vegetable production <br/>and marketing. The unfavourable weather conditions, followed by high input cost and <br/>pest and disease incidence were found to be the major constraints in the study area.<br/>Thus, it can be concluded that with improvement in the awareness level among <br/>farmers regarding the post-harvest losses and by training them in the area of post-harvest <br/>operations and handling, we can reduce the losses occurring in the vegetables to a <br/>remarkable extent in the area studied.<br/> |
