Key issues in post harvest management of fruits and vegetables in India

 

 

Lalsiemlien Pulamte

 

Fruits and vegetables are important supplements to the human diet. The production of fruit and vegetables during 2006-07 as per the data available with the National Horticulture Board (NHB) is 58.92 and 116.03 million tonnes, respectively. Latest information indicates that 30% of all fruits produced (roughly worth Rs 13,600 crores) and 30% of the vegetable crops the country produces (worth Rs 14,100 crores) are lost due to mismanagement. According to a joint study conducted earlier by CII and McKenzie, at least 50% of the produced fruits and vegetables in the country are lost due to wastage and value destruction. Taking the loss rate at 50% the net availability of fruits and vegetables should be about 87 million tonnes. As per the specifications of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) at least 300 g of fruit and vegetables are to be consumed by an individual for a balanced diet. Thus when the population is one billion, the minimum requirement of fruits and vegetables in the country is 110 million tonnes in order to meet our basic nutrition requirement. There is a shortfall of about 65 million tonnes. This figure does not include the requirements of the food processing industry or export. It is evident that the only way to cope with the present situation is to give a massive thrust to reduction of post harvest losses in order to make available more food from the existing level of production. The major issues in post harvest management of fruits and vegetables are briefly highlighted below:

 

Inadequate Post-harvest Infrastructures for Fruits and Vegetables

Lack of sorting facilities, inappropriate packaging, and slow transport systems and inadequate storage facilities add to the deterioration of these perishables. Grading is generally not followed at the producer’s level. As a whole, grading facilities of the desired level have not been created. Such facilities have to be developed at packing houses / grading and packing-centers for farmers.

 

Table 1: Commodity-wise distribution of cold storage in the country (as on 31 Dec 2003)

Commodity

Number

Capacity

(‘000 tonnes)

Percentage

Potato

2618

14,792.3

81.23

Multipurpose

1045

3108.3

17.06

Fruits and Vegetables

121

38.9

0.21

Meat and fish

464

174.7

0.96

Milk and milk products

202

79.1

0.43

Others

91

15.7

0.08

Total

4541

18,209.0

100.0

Source: GOI (2007)

 

However, in some states these facilities are being set up at certain levels. Andhra Pradesh, one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables, is trying to provide matching post harvest infrastructures. It is developing cool chain facilities for mango growing areas. There are 11 grading and packing centers in Himachal Pradesh with an installed capacity of 37,500 tonnes. Similarly, Jammu and Kashmir also developed apple grading/packing centers in six locations. Walnut hulling and drying centers of 500 tonnes capacity each have also been set up at three places. Maharashtra leads in creating post harvest infrastructures. The APEDA, New Delhi has recognized 106 packing houses in Maharashtra (97), Andhra Pradesh (5), UP (2), Karnataka (1) and Gujarat (1) which have facilities of international standards for grading and packing of fruits and vegetables, particularly for exports.

Cold storage industry is more than a hundred years old. A number of cold storages have been set up (See Table 1). The capacity of cold storage was 18.21 million tonnes as on 31 December 2003, which is only 12.49% of the total production of 145.78 million tonnes. Potato alone occupies 81%, whereas fruits and vegetables occupy only 0.21% of the existing capacity, which needs to be enhanced by constructing multi-chamber and multi-commodity cold storages.

In recent years, there has been an escalation in the cost of land and building materials, and labour charges. These constraints coupled with high electricity tariff have made the proposition of cold storages less attractive from profit point of view.

 

Inadequate Processing Facilities/ Industry for Fruits and Vegetables

The fruit and vegetable sector in India is underdeveloped. Less than 2% is being processed as against 30% in Thailand, 70% in Brazil, 78% in Philippines and 80% in Malaysia. Value addition in the food sector is as low as 7%. Horticultural processing needs a significant boost from its present 2% to 10% by 2010. This requires an estimated investment of Rs 140,000 crores in the food processing sector. Such investment is likely to generate direct employment for 7.7 million people and indirect employment for 30.0 million.

 

Table 2: Post harvest losses Scenario

Name of fruits/vegetables

Post harvest losses

(% of production)

Banana

12-14

Mango

17-37

Citrus (orange)

8-31

Guava

3-15

Apple

10-25

Pineapple

5-20

Grapes

23-30

Beans and peas

7-12

Brinjal

10-13

Cabbage

7-15

Cauliflower

10-15

Garlic

1-3

Onion

15-30

Potato

15-20

Tomato

10-20

Source: Chadha and Pareek (1993)

 

At present the size of food processing industry in the country is estimated to be close to Rs 2,00,000 crores with an annual growth rate of 7-8%. During this period it is interesting to observe that the output addition in food manufacturing was Rs 90,000 crores as compared to Rs 30,000 crores in IT industry and Rs 15,000 crores in pharmaceutical sector. Small scale and unorganised sector accounts for 70% of the food processing. However, India’s share in the global food trade (US $ 450 billion) is only about 1%. The constraints perceived in the growth of food processing are the following: cost of processed food is high, unavailability of quality raw material, inadequate infrastructure, unavailability of timely credit, technological obsolescence, a long and fragmented supply chain, taxation on processed foods and processed food quality monitoring & certification problems.

Fruit and vegetable processing is one major sector offering a large potential for exports. This industry is characterised by very high post harvest losses. According to TIFAC the losses range from 14-36% in the case of fruits and 10-25% in the case of vegetables. In 1996, there were more than 4,000 processing units of various capacities in the country. In the export front, mango and grapes rank first accounting for more than 70% of the total exports. Among vegetables, onions accounted for 90% of the exports. Even in large processing units, many processing operations are performed manually, leading to low production rates. The industry also suffers from high packaging costs. A large number of processed fruits and all processed vegetable products are packed in OTS cans.

Data presented in Table 3 give a hint of the extent of post harvest losses that occur during different stages of handling. Care must be taken at such critical stages, which may differ from crops to crops.

 

Table 3: Post harvest losses (%) of horticultural crops at various stages of handling in Assam State

 

Crops

 

Harvesting

 

Grading

 

Transport

Marketing/ Storage Wholesaler

 

Retailer

Total loss (%)

Orange

3.25

0.75

1.25

1.20

7.50

13.95

Pineapple

1.73

0.54

1.95

2.66

2.37

9.25

Banana

Nil

Nil

10.00

5.00

7.00

22.00

Ginger

1.5

2.25

1.50

2.75

2.50

10.50

Tomato

0.75

3.75

11.00

2.50

7.25

10.50

Cauliflower

Nil

2.75

7.50

1.75

3.75

15.75

Spine

Gourd

Nil

8.30

4.30

1.80

2.70

17.10

Pointed

Gourd

Nil

5.40

7.50

1.90

2.10

16.90

Source: Directorate of Research (Agri), Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat April 2005

 

On the basis of general post harvest loss estimates (GOI, 2004) available with the ICAR, as presented in the 2nd International Agronomy Congress, 2002 and other studies conducted by different researchers of ICAR Institutes and Agricultural Universities, the estimated extent of annual post harvest losses as per cent of the produce, along with their estimates in Rupees are:

 

Contamination by Pesticide Residues

The presence of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables is one concern in providing quality and safe food. India’s consumption of pesticides is only 2% of the world’s consumption (2.6 million tonnes of active ingredients of pesticides), but India is the third largest consumer in the world and the highest among the South Asian countries. During the last four decades consumption of pesticides in India has increased several hundred folds from 154 tonnes in 1953-54 to 80,000 tonnes in 1994-95. Fruits and vegetables consume the highest amount of pesticides (26%) in the world. However, in India the consumption of pesticides by vegetables is 9%.

Seasonal vegetables consisting of green leafy vegetables, tomato, potato, cauliflower, okra, cabbage, etc have been analysed for pesticidal contamination in almost all states of India. Major vegetables like tomato, okra, cabbage, brinjal, capsicum, potato and cauliflower showed contamination with organochlorines, organophosphates, synthetic pyrethroids and carbamate insecticides during 1988-2000. Among these (61%) samples were found contaminated with about 11 per cent samples having residues above MRL. In Haryana, percent contamination of vegetable samples has been higher as compared to the national level of contamination.

Fruit samples obtained from Ghaziabad area during 1986-88 showed pesticide contamination for 90-93 per cent of the samples, whereas grape samples in Haryana during 1984-85 showed 71 per cent contamination with carbaryl residues. During 1998-99, out of the 180 samples of mango, grapes, berries, guava, ber, orange, sapota, pomegranate analysed for fungicides, gibberellic acid insecticides, 55% were found contaminated with pesticide residues and 6% exceeded their MRL values. The main contaminant was carbamate fungicide in the form of carbon disulphide. From the cases mentioned above it appears that the contamination over the years is decreasing.

 

Plant-breeding for quality fruits and vegetables

The current focus of plant breeding in India is on higher yield, disease resistance, herbicide resistance, drought and salinity tolerance and to some extent quality. Only the physical aspects of quality, i.e. shape, size, texture, colour, tenderness, etc are given due attention in the breeding programme. There is little or no emphasis on biochemical quality, which includes – proteins, vitamins, sugar, dry matter, flavour, alkaloids, flavonoids, etc. A different set of bio-chemical parameters determines the quality of different fruits and vegetables.

 

 

References:

 

 

 

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