Need to minimise post-harvest losses

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaweera is right when he draws attention to ways in which the destruction of fresh fruit and vegetables can be vastly reduced. (And hopefully, even eliminated).

It is common sense, of course, that in a tropical country like Sri Lanka, fruit and vegetables will perish at a much faster rate than in countries having a mild or cooler climate.  It is for this basic reason that fruit and vegetables must ideally, be transported in mainly refrigerated lorries, trucks or other suitable vehicles, where possible, in order to extend their freshness and delay any spoilage, etc. (The government ought to encourage the use of such transportation by providing some monetary assistance in this regard).

Short term benefits may result, as the minister rightly says, using plastic containers for certain produce. However, they must be designed with ventilation holes on the sides to maximise the maintenance of their freshness during transportation, thereby extending their “use by date.”

Gunny bags for transporting fresh fruit and vegetables should never be used as a matter of convenience, since it adds to the prevailing temperature and humidity of the packed items, much quicker.  Sitting on the filled gunny bags is not only stupid, but more importantly, extremely unhygienic.

Another important way to prevent the fast spoiling or rotting of fruit and vegetables is to educate and encourage open market stall holders and vendors to not display the fruit and vegetables without a proper roof or covering. This will help to shield those items from the hot tropical sun. Needless to say, such action alone will result in slowing down the decomposition process in the fruit and vegetables being displayed for sale.

If the above-mentioned actions were to be carried out, they will result in the fruit and vegetables retaining their freshness and life, for very much longer, thereby helping to reduce their sale prices as a direct result of arresting and reducing the massive wastage occurring at present.

All of the above are common sense measures that should be considered and implemented promptly.   (But common sense is a commodity which is very often so hard to find among people involved in the agriculture industry!)

I am sure that there would hardly be any countries in Asia and Africa that would put to utter waste, fresh fruit and vegetables on such a massive scale as seen in Sri Lanka!

Ryan Herft