POST-HARVEST PROBLEMS OF NON-GRAIN STAPLES

The tropical staple foods other than grains, usually derived from relatively small-scale horticultural production systems, are much more important, especially in humid tropical ecosystems, than is generally appreciated, and provide staple food for several hundred million people.
These non-grain staples include the tropical root crops, cassava, yams, potatoes, cocoyam and sweet potatoes; fruits such as plantains and breadfruit, and crop products derived from stems e.g. ensete and sago.

Post-harvest losses in these crop products have been estimated at around 25%. The post-harvest problems of the crop products vary greatly between different situations.
The paper discusses some considerations common to all, and also major crop-specific problems.

IV Africa Symposium on Horticultural Crops

D.G. Coursey, R.H. Booth

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1977.53.1