Indian Journal of Ecology
Year : 2024, Volume : 51, Issue : 1
First page : ( 241) Last page : ( 245)
Print ISSN : 0304-5250.
Article DOI : 10.55362/IJE/2024/4224

Pre and Post-harvest Losses of Tomato in Punjab: Insights from Field Survey

Kaur G.^*, Kaur P.

Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004, India

^*E-mail: kaurguri428@gmail.com

Online Published on 20 February, 2024.

Abstract

The study was carried out to quantify the pre and post-harvest losses of tomato in Punjab. Multistage stratified and purposive sampling was used to select the 200 respondents from 21 villages of Patiala and Amritsar district of Punjab during the period, 2020-21. Blight assault accounted for the majority of output losses at the farm level (18.95%), followed by fruit borer attack (14.85%), unfavorable weather conditions (11.89%), and fruit cracks from excessive rain (3.44%). The proportion of the losses from total production was 6.18 percent at producer level, 2.60 percent at trader's level out of which 1.82 percent losses were at commission agent cum wholesaler level and 0.76 percent at retailer's level of the total quantity marketed. At various stages of production and marketing, the total post-harvest losses in tomatoes were 8.76 percent. Age of the farmer had a negative and significant coefficient (0.865) taken into account as one of the independent factors impacting post-harvest losses at the farm level. Inadequate labour (19.93) and inadequate transportation facilities (16.98) were the factors having positive and significant effect on the extent of post-harvest losses at farm level. The negative and significant coefficient (-39.154) of dummy variable for the district shows that on an average post-harvest losses of Amritsar district was significantly lower than Patiala district. The negative and significant coefficient (-15.772) of dummy variable for farm size categories indicating that the post-harvest losses in medium farm size category were lower than the large farm size category. It is recommended that providing scientific post-harvest handling and management training to vegetable farmers, together with chances for value addition, will improve their livelihoods and revenue. Extension services should be provided to the farmers regarding effective post-harvest management techniques that enhance their technical proficiency and enable them to manage post-harvest operations with precision. Pest and disease activity accounted for a larger portion of post-harvest losses on farms. Thus, it is advised that farmers apply integrated pest management techniques. More and more small and large processing units must be built in the state in order to reduce post-harvest losses.

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Keywords

Tomato, Post-harvest, Losses, Factors, Punjab.

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