CPT 2803

HANDLING & PROCESSING OF CROP

PRODUCTS

LECTURE 1

IMPORTANCE OF PRE – HARVEST AND ITS EFFECT ON

YIELD OF CROP PRODUCTS
INTRODUCTION

 Critical Factors in Pre-Harvest

 Effects of Pre-Harvest on The Quality and Shelf Life of Crop Products
INTRODUCTION
 Fruits and vegetables provide nutritional security and generate income to
growers.
 Production practices, contribute to the good quality of produce.
 Once a produce is harvested, it is not possible to improve its quality
because of perishability.
 Quality and safety are the two most important aspects of food for human
consumption.
 Pre harvest management/factors has great effect on quality of fruits and
vegetables.
INTRODUCTION

 Although high visual quality is desirable for most processing methods,

the composition of fruit (e.g flavors, texture, color and nutritional value)
is more important.
 These quality should be impaired as little as possible during the specified
process.
 e.g., some vegetable cannot be dehydrated or frozen because of their
chemical composition or physical structure. Some kind have a bitter taste
when dried, others loose color and flavor.
INTRODUCTION
Pre-
harvest
factors

Factors
affecting
quality of
crop
produces Post-
Harvest
harvest
factors
factors
INTRODUCTION
Food quality attributes
 Sight
 Appearance, Color, Gloss, Shape, Size, Defects
 Touch
 Texture, Hand or Finger feel
 Smell And Taste
 Flavour, Odor, Taste
 Hidden Attributes
 Nutritive value
INTRODUCTION
 Pre-harvest – before harvest
 Harvest – the process of period of gathering in crops
 Post-harvest – after harvest

Postharvest management starts with pre-harvest managements. Once the fruits are
harvested, the overall quality of fresh fruits can hardly be improved but it can be
maintained.
The final market value of the produce and acceptance by the consumers depends
upon the grower’s ability to apply best available pre-harvest technology followed by
harvesting and then to apply best available postharvest handling practices.
CRITICAL FACTORS IN PRE-HARVEST

ENVIRONMENTAL GENETIC
CULTURAL PRACTICES FACTORS
FACTORS FACTORS

Temperature, Mineral nutrition, Growth regulators,

Light, Root Stock, Irrigation, Pruning,
Variety
Rain, Thinning, Girdling,
Winds, Bunching Covering, Disease/Pest, Soil
Humidity Preparation
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR - TEMPERATURE
 Temperature influences the uptake and metabolism of mineral nutrients
by plants,
 since transpiration rates increase with increasing temperature.

 High temperature affects maturity, color, sugar, acidity, etc.

 reduce the quality for e.g. in citrus, reddish, spinach cauliflower etc.
 increased the quality in grapes, melons tomato etc.

 Low temperature cause chilling and freezing injury which reduced the
quality.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR - LIGHT
 Location of production and the season in which plants are grown can determine
their ascorbic acid, carotene, riboflavin, thiamine, and flavonoid contents.
 In general, the lower the light intensity the lower the ascorbic acid content of
plant tissues.
 Essential for anthocyanin formation.
 Exposed fruit to sun light develop lighter weight, thinner peel, lower juice and acids and
higher TSS than shaded fruits, e.g. citrus mango etc.
 Light exposure of potato causes greening (solanine formation) which has toxic
properties.
 High sun light intensity cause sun scaled in citrus and tomato and reduce the poor white
color in cauliflower.
 Low light intensity cause thin and large leaves in leafy vegetables
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR - LIGHT

 Day length and light intensity also influences crop water requirements.
 In general, the greater the intensity of light, the greater the rate of
transpiration or water loss from the plant and the greater will be the need
to replace the water loss.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR - RAIN

 Rainfall affects water supply to the plant, which may influence the
composition of the harvested plant part and its susceptibility to
mechanical damage and decay during subsequent harvesting and handling
operations.

 Causes cracking in grapes, dates, litchi, limes, lemon, tomato, sweet

potato etc.
 It reduces appearance and sweetness.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR - WINDS
 Causes brushing, scratching and corky scar (citrus fruits) on the fruit and
damage leafy vegetables
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR - HUMIDITY
 High humidity reduces the color and TSS and increases acidity in citrus,
grapes, tomato, etc.
 but it is needed for better quality of banana, litchi, and pineapple.
 Water loss from harvested fruit produce is predominantly caused by the
amount of moisture present in the ambient air expressed as relative
humidity.
 At very high relative humidity, harvested fruits maintain their nutritional
quality, appearance, weight, and flavour, whilst reducing the rate at which
wilting, softening, and juiciness occur.
GENETIC FACTOR – VARIETY
 The first factor determining the prevalence of different quality parameters
of fruit such as size, shape color, weight and biochemical composition,
productiveness, bright appearance and good keeping qualities.

 Plant breeders have been successful in selecting

 carrot, sweet potato, and tomato cultivars with comparably high carotenoid levels
and vitamin A content;
 onion and tomato cultivars with longer shelf-lives,
 sweet corn cultivars that maintain their sweetness longer after harvest;
 cantaloupe and watermelon cultivars with higher sugar content and firmer flesh,
 and pineapple cultivars with higher contents of ascorbic acid, carotenoids, and
CULTURAL FACTOR – MINERAL NUTRITION

 Important components and have significant impact on the crop quality.

 Poor management of fertilizers will increase physiological disorders due
to deficiencies of some nutrients or increase of other leading to toxicity.
 Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Boron,
Copper
 E.g: High N reduces ascorbic acid content, K deficiency cause uneven
ripening,
CULTURAL FACTOR – GROWTH REGULATOR

 Application of PGRs can provide significant economic advantage to the

growers when used in appropriate concentration, as these have proven
effective in stimulating a number of yield and quality parameters.
 The growth regulators also contribute towards fruit growth and
development.
 Auxin, Gibberellic acid, Cytokinin, Ethylene, Growth Retardant
 E.g: Application of synthetic gibberellins is widely known to improve
fruit set in apple and pear; Auxin increase fruit size in citrus
 CULTURAL FACTOR – ROOT STOCK
 The rootstocks in tree fruit crops are used to
influence precocity, tree size, fruit quality,
yield efficiency, mineral uptake, and to
withstand adverse environmental conditions.
 Rootstock effect is clearly identifiable in the
development of fruit firmness, fruit weight,
and biochemical composition.
 Rootstock influences the accumulation of
sugars, acids, polyphenols, anthocyanins, and
vitamins in cherry fruit.
CULTURAL FACTOR – IRRIGATION

 Water stress
 Lack of water reduces crop productivity and also
tends to accelerate fruit ripening
 E.g: also increase sunburn and cracking in apples,
apricot and cherries and increase in temperature at
maturity will lead to fruit cracking
 CULTURAL FACTOR – IRRIGATION

 Excess irrigation
 disturbs the oxygen balance of the root zone,
 reduces exchange of oxygen between soil and the
atmosphere. reduction in root growth.
 Increase potential of root disease.
 Decrease soil temperature decrease root growth.
 Causes nutrient to run off from soil to groundwater.
CULTURAL FACTOR – PRUNING
 Pruning reduce the vegetative buds and increase the
development of new shoot and attributes to altered
hormonal conditions better nutritional translocation in
more number of new shoots and canopy frame work.

 E.g: The main reason to prune tomato plants is that it

helps your plant direct its energy toward producing fruit
rather than producing more foliage. Tomatoes should be
pruned to not only produce larger fruit earlier in the
season but also to protect the plants against pest and
disease problems.
CULTURAL FACTOR – THINNING
 Thinning - removing some of the plants that are growing too close
together so that only one plant is left to grow.
 Thinning reduces the competition between fruits or plants and thus
promotes a good balance between the vegetative and fruit parts and
improves quality.
 In case of grapes over cropping can reduced fruit quality in current
season and can also result in poor bud break, delayed growth and
reduced fruit yield in the following season. With the increase in cluster in
per vine, carbohydrates content in berries was also reduced to the
maximum extent.
CULTURAL FACTOR – GIRDLING
 Girdling involves cutting out a thin strip of bark
from around the trunk or branches
 used as a technique to force a fruit-bearing plant to
bear larger fruit. by restricting nutrient movement
to the roots, thus the carbohydrates produced in the
leaves do not go to the roots for storage.
 Tree girdling for fruit production is an accepted
practice in commercial peach and nectarine
production.
 It increase in size, color and sugar in grape berries
CULTURAL FACTOR – BUNCHING COVERING
 Also called pre-harvest packaging
 Pre-harvest packaging in fruit crops protects the fruit
from the attack of pest such as fruit fly and guava
weevil.
 Different types of bagging material are used like
Kraft type paper, baking paper, polyethylene, poly
propylene spun bond fabrics (PSF), Bio degraded
films.
 E.g: Pre-harvest bunch covering with plastic bags
produced banana fruits of better color and quality.
CULTURAL FACTOR – DISEASE / PEST
 Pathogens and insects have a very negative
effect on quality.
 Poor management of plant protection
programmes can lead to very poor quality and
reduced yield.
 Pre-harvest application of systemic fungicides
prevents quiescence like anthracnose of mango,
crown rot of banana stem end rot in citrus
 pre-harvest application of chitosan reduced the
post-harvest fungal rot and maintains the quality
of strawberry
CULTURAL FACTOR – SOIL PREPARATION

 Soil preparation, beginning with a soil fertility management and crop

rotation strategy, is very critical to maximise productivity and quality.
 The potential root zone in the soil must be well-tilled and amended with
organic fertilizer,
 particularly for poorly mobile minerals such as phosphorus.

 Soil type was also found to affect sensory attributes of the fruits
EFFECTS OF PRE-HARVEST ON THE QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE
OF CROP PRODUCTS

GENETIC
FACTOR
CULTURAL
ENVIRONMENTA FACTOR
L FACTOR

QUALITY
& SHELF
LIFE OF
CROP
EFFECTS OF PRE-HARVEST ON THE QUALITY AND SHELF
LIFE OF CROP PRODUCTS
 Understanding and managing the various roles that pre-harvest factors such
as pruning, disease and pest management, maturity stage, cultivar selection,
and irrigation is very important in order to produce high quality fruits at
harvest.

 If the quality of the crop products were maintained during the pre – harvest
stage, the shelf life of the crop product will also be extended.

 But, the quality of the crop also depends on the harvesting and post – harvest
stage of the crop produce.
THANK YOU