Technologies used in post harvest handling and storage
of agriculture products in Nepal
Pragati Shrestha
Department of Horticulture and Landscape
Architecture
Outline
•Background
•Limitations of post
harvest technologies
•Prevailing
postharvest handling
and storage
techniques
•Conclusion
Nepal
Area- 147,181 sq. km
-56,827 sq. miles
Three Ecological Zones
High Hills (> 5000 amsl)- 35%
Mid Hills (300- 5000 amsl)- 42%
Plain/Terai (60-300 amsl)- 23%
Background
•Agriculture contributes 36% of national GDP
• Horticultural crops account for 14 % of the total value of the agricultural
GDP
• Approx. 1,799,973 Mt of vegetable crops are produced from 165,988 ha of land
• Horticulture produce highly perishable (15-35% losses at diff. stages)
•Commercializing in fruits and vegetables but still lacks consistency
Current Status of Post Harvest Management
Hand picking
Grading
Packing
Marketing
Storage
Constraints/ issues of Post harvest Losses
• Limited level of production
• Small land holdings
•Small, scattered, remotely located production pockets with limited
access to market centers
•Poor post harvest management
•Lack of sustainable technologies which result in high cost
•Poor physical facilitates
•Topography
•Inadequate modern technologies and skills
Lower cost small scale storage facilities
1.
Improved Cellar Storage
• 3 sides enclosed by hill
• outer and inner wall thickness 30 cm
each
•Space between wall filled with sand
up to 2m height
• generally 3 x 3x 3 m3
• a perforated pipe 2.5-5 cm diameter
is laid over sand
• 1m x 2m door
• Bottom door 30 cm x 100 cm covered
with wire mesh for fresh air circulation
• two ventilators to circulate air
• roof maintained 30 -60 cm mud to
protect from direct sunlight
Features
- Warehouse constructed from locally available materials
such as stone, mud and sand
- Temperature inside maintained between 4 - 9 0C (40 –
50 0 F)
- Humidity between 75 - 90 %
- Generally used for apples, mandarins, oranges and sweet
oranges
-reported up to 120 days of mandarin storage without any quality deterioration and
with 11 % storage loss (DOA, 2004)
2. Zero energy storage structure
Features
-No energy requirement
-Based on principle of evaporative cooling
-Made up of brick and sand
-Rectangular shape with 75 cm x 50cm x 75 cm
-Outer and inner wall separated and filled with sand
-Sand frequently watered to maintain the temperature 7 -10 0 C (44.6 –
50 0 F)
-Covered by bamboo frame and overlaid by jute matrix which is
sprinkled by water to keep moistened
-Jute matrix can be further covered to protect from sunlight
- reported up to 22 days of mandarin storage without any quality deterioration (NARC,
1997)
Conclusion
•Early stage of commercialization
•Need proper postharvest management, adoption of
standards, selection of appropriate varieties for
competitiveness
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