Effect of post-harvest handling practices on quantitative losses and qualitative changes of tomato: a case study of Arumeru District
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Date
2012
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Post-harvest handling practices are of great importance in preventing both qualitative and
quantitative losses in tomato which are high in developing countries including Tanzania,
yet very few studies have been carried out to establish the nature, types and magnitude of
such losses.
The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of post-harvest
handling practices on quantitative losses and qualitative changes of tomato in Arumeru
District. A total of 134 respondents including farmers, retailers and wholesalers were
surveyed and interviewed using structured questionnaire to collect information on
existing post-harvest handling practices of tomato in the district while laboratory studies
were conducted to establish the physico-chemical changes of tomato along the supply
chain. The survey and laboratory data were analyzed by SPSS (16.0) and GenStat (13.3)
respectively. The results showed that two tomato varieties commonly grown by farmers
were Onyx (53.0%) and Riogrande (47.0%). Majority of farmers (73.0%) harvested
tomato in the morning and few (27.0%) in the evening. All farmers (100%) graded their
tomato, packaged in wooden crates and transported in open trucks to the markets. The
study revealed that farmers produce 10 725 tonnes of tomato per year on average and
724.0, 1438.0 and 999.0 tonnes of tomato are lost per year during harvesting,
transportation and marketing respectively. Types of losses experienced along the supply
chain were mechanical (1350.2), microbial (1309.7) and physiological (501.8) tonnes
respectively. Physico-chemical composition of tomato varied significantly (p<0.05)
between varieties and handling stages. Protein ranged from 16.03-19.09, ash 7.56-8.19,
fat 0.89-1.7, carbohydrate 71.07-74.00 and reducing sugar 3.40-3.68 g/100 g. Total solids
ranged from 4.99-6.35°Brix, acidity 0.63-0.54 g/100 g, pH 4.49-4.67 and vitamin C
28.43-16.88 mg/100 g. Vitamin C showed susceptibility to post-harvest handling
practices while /3-carotene and fibre were stable. Extensive training on tomato post-
harvest loss reduction is recommended in Arumeru District.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Post-harvest, Changes tomato, High developing countries, Arumeru Tanzania