Most people in Bangladesh depend directly or indirectly on agriculture, and improved seed, fertiliser, irrigation and technology have brought the country close to self-sufficiency in food grains. But behind that success lies a long-neglected crisis: post-harvest losses of fruit and vegetables. For lack of storage and transport, huge quantities rot every year, hurting farmers, food security and the economy.

Bangladesh grows 72 kinds of fruit and 156 kinds of vegetables and exports to 118 countries. It ranks third in the world in vegetable production and tenth in fruit. Yet post-harvest losses run at 20 to 40 percent. According to Bangladesh Agricultural University research, losses are 43.5 percent for jackfruit, 43.1 percent for pineapple, 39.9 percent for papaya, 34.4 percent for cauliflower, 32.9 percent for tomato, 27.4 percent for mango and 24.6 percent for banana, with about 7 to 9 percent lost at each stage of the supply chain.

• High water content (96 percent in cucumber, 94 percent in tomato, 92 percent in aubergine) makes produce rot quickly.
• Poor post-harvest handling: wrong harvest timing, dirty containers and transport exposed to sun or rain.
• Lack of storage: the country's roughly 400 cold stores, with a capacity of 6 million tonnes, are mainly for potatoes.
• Gluts at harvest push prices down, forcing farmers to sell cheaply or watch produce rot.

Research by BAU's Department of Farm Power and Machinery shows that mangoes (Amrapali, Haribhanga, Langra and BARI-4), after lime and hot water pre-treatment, keep for 14 to 21 days at 12°C and 85 to 95 percent humidity. Carrots, cabbage, radish and cauliflower keep for 14 to 38 days at 5°C; tomato and green chilli for 21 to 30 days at 8°C; and pineapple, lemon and amra (hog plum) for 7 to 26 days at 10°C.

Existing cold stores are large, expensive and concentrated in cities or potato areas, out of reach of small farmers. BAU and other institutions are developing small, low-cost, farmer-friendly cold stores. The new design:

• runs on ordinary 220-volt household power, available in about 99 percent of the country, which has more than 23,000 MW of generating capacity;
• uses Internet of Things (IoT)-based automatic temperature and humidity control, with real-time monitoring through an Android app;
• uses environmentally friendly refrigerants that reduce harm to the ozone layer.

Stored produce can be sold when demand and prices are higher; studies in other countries show cold chains raise farm incomes by 30 to 50 percent. Young entrepreneurs could buy small units and charge farmers for storage, creating rural jobs in line with the government's mechanisation policy. Cutting post-harvest losses from 32 percent to under 10 percent would add millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables. Globally about 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted each year, and FAO says preventing this waste is key to feeding a growing population.

A full cold chain is needed, from pre-cooling after harvest to refrigerated transport, storage and delivery, as India, China and Thailand have built. Government subsidies, special credit, farmer cooperatives, NGOs and development partners such as the World Bank, IFAD and ADB could fund it. The writer notes that the agriculture minister has announced plans for a project to set up 2,000 cold stores.

The writer is an agricultural mechanisation researcher and consultant.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.