Assessment of postharvest practices and loss of vegetables marketed in selected regions of Ghana

This paper reports on a survey conducted to compare postharvest handling methods for vegetable crops in the semi-deciduous and Guinea savanna agroclimatic zones in the Ashanti and Northern geographical regions of Ghana, respectively.
Information on postharvest losses was obtained through a socioeconomic field survey of various actors in vegetable supply chains with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire complemented by physical measurement of produce samples for damage, disease incidence and severity.
An analysis of marketing systems highlighted the influence of key market traders and brokers on handling practices -particularly in the preparation of produce for and during transportation – and in setting prices for vegetable crops.
Variation in the size and style of packaging was due to efforts to minimize costs, but this affects the level and type of damage observed in the marketing chain.
Information on produce quality along the vegetable value chain was obtained and the attitudes of the various actors toward produce quality assessed.
While it is generally understood that losses do occur during harvesting, handling and marketing, the extent of these problems is only now being realized.
The information obtained from the quantitative survey will provide a useful guide in the development of an adaptive research program to improve the quality of vegetables produced by smallholder farmers and reduce the losses they currently experience.

XXIX International Horticultural Congress on Horticulture: Sustaining Lives, Livelihoods and Landscapes (IHC2014): XVII International Symposium on Horticultural Economics and Management and V International Symposium on Improving the Performance of Supply Chains in the Transitional Economies

N. Nenguwo, V. Afari-Sefa, J. d’A. Hughes

socioeconomics, packaging, value chains, harvesting

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1103.32