Non sustainability of agricultural products, challenges of post harvest loses in Nigeria

Abstract

Lossesexperienced at post-harvest are very enormous. At every stage of post harvestpractice/handling, agricultural products incur damages due to some factors;biological (wildlife), mechanical (machine equipment) etc. almost all theproduce properties like physical (shape, density etc), mechanical (compressive,tensile strength) etc are affected. Principal causes of post-harvest losses arebuttressed here and solutions were proffered. Reasons for the loss inpost-harvest of agricultural products recorded were traced and the attemptsthat have been made in the recent past by engineers in Nigeria researchingtowards achieving low or no post-harvest loss are well explained. Results ofpost-harvest losses in some fresh fruits and vegetables were presented. Theharvested produce placed gently into containers with grass cushions and notpacked tightly is one solution that could help prevent post-harvest losses atcertain stages of agricultural products.