Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
fecting this vital quality attribute. With higher temperatures, more water is
required for maintaining quality of the produce in distribution chain.
Post-harvest losses due to frosts are likely to be increased as fruits
develop freezing injury. Untimely rains and hailstorms in February-March
cause losses to mandarin growers every year since last 15-18 years in
Central India. Rains during harvest season cause considerable losses due
topostharvest diseases.
Main factors in quality deterioration of fresh fruits are temperature and
RH with respect to time. Growth of microbes could be exponential with
higher temperatures. Post harvest pathogens have their temperature op-
tima.
With changing climate, food security challenges are going to aggravate
and postharvest management strategy needs a retrospection and modifica-
tions. A country like India is facing twin challenges, that is,(1) Population
explosion; and (2) Global warming and climate change. It is clear that our
planning and policy-making have failed to tackle former issue completely.
For later, time is running out. Earlier the corrective measures taken better it
will be. It is the industrialized nations who are generating maximum GHG
and they have to take initiative. India needs to take corrective measures
on its own at least on its territory to meet challenges of global warming
immediately without waiting for other countries. Climate change not only
threatens production system and impairs our efforts for higher productiv-
ity but it also affects quality and postharvest storage ability.
At present, losses are 20-30% depending on season of production,
commodity, chain of middlemen, distance to market, packaging and post-
harvest management practices. Post-harvest losses are likely to increase
further with extremes of climatic events like droughts, floods, storms and
frosts.
The impact on postharvest responses, of preharvest exposure of fruit to
direct sunlight, with associated high tissue temperatures, has been reviewed
(Woolf and Ferguson, 2000). Fruit flesh temperatures well above 40 °C
have been recorded in direct sunlight in a wide range of crops in both hot
and temperate climates. These high temperatures, both in terms of diurnal
fluctuations and long-term exposure, can result in differences in internal
quality properties such as sugar contents, tissue firmness, and oil levels,
as well as in mineral content differences. Fruit with different temperature
histories will also respond differently to postharvest low temperatures and
heat treatments used for insect disinfestation. For example, avocado fruit
