Purushottam Prasad Khatiwada

Value Chain Development of Fruit and Vegetables Project

Corresponding authors' email: khatiwadapp@gmail.com

Abstract

Commercialization of fruit and vegetables farming and long-distance travel of fresh producesto market centres warrant the proper postharvest handling to minimize the losses. Despite high postharvest losses,systematic interventions in this area have not yet been made. Many projects supported by donors and development partners (directly implemented by public entities and projects in collaboration with public entities) contributed on the postharvest loss reduction of fresh produces. The losses after production have direct affect on the food sufficiency and low level of nutritional contribution as expected from fresh produces due to quality losses. Upon reviewing the past endeavours and their results, recommendations are made for future considerations to reduce the postharvest losses of fresh produces considering the current socio-economic context of Nepal. These includes, awareness raising from policy making level to growers, nationwide loss assessment using standard methodology for prioritization of the interventions, establishment of a dedicated institution for postharvest research and development, devising a separate approach for postharvest technologies rollout, critical mass development and mobilization for knowledge development and dissemination, formulation and execution of regulatory frameworks for quality standard, establishment of small scale processing plants in production blocks, mechanism to involvemarket intermediaries in postharvest loss reduction, mechanism to share economic advantages of postharvest technologies adoption and adoption of value chain thinking on postharvest management.

Keywords: Fresh produces, fruit, interventions, postharvest loss, vegetables