A method for managing, storing, and transporting agricultural products after harvest is known as post-harvest management. Post-harvest management has grown in significance throughout time because it reinforces the chain of activities that produce, transport, and process food and all other associated products that feed the world’s population.
Irish potato handlers and producers focus on maintaining the crop’s quality, quantity, and safety during the post-harvest period. In other words, they make sure that moisture, impurities, and insects won’t degrade the quality of the potato.
let’s discuss on potato post-harvest handling:
When the plant dries out and starts to die off, farmers should harvest potatoes. By this time, skin is stronger and more durable, and leaves have turned yellow, brittle, and dry.
- Harvest during sunny, cool days whenever possible to ensure that the moisture on the tubers dries and the soil that adheres to the tubers easily comes off.
- Before placing the tubers in storage, keep them exposed and spread out for two hours to allow them to dry.
- If potatoes are gathered while it is raining, they should be dried in a shed out of the sun before being stored.
- With small hoes, carved sticks, or a spade fork, harvest the tubers after removing the dried plant stem.
- Make sure there are no left tubers in the soil during harvesting.
- To avoid contaminating healthy tubers, after harvesting, collect harvest remains such as plants and rotten tubers and burn them away from the plot.
- Avoid storing collected tubers in humid environments that could lead to infections like rot or exposing them to direct sunlight.
Transport
Pack and transport potatoes to a place where they can be graded, and stored. To prevent sunburn on potatoes, ensure quick transit.
Farmers should do the following checks while packaging for transport:
- Place potatoes delicately in sacks or containers. Skin injuries occur when tubers are thrown into containers.
- Commonly used woven polythene bags do not provide enough ventilation and encourage rotting, making them unsuitable for potatoes. Bags made of jute or net are suggested.
- In order to reduce the risk of tubers becoming bruised and hurting one another, it is suggested that potatoes should be packaged in bags that weigh no more than 50 kilograms.
- Instead of throwing potato sacks, arrange them carefully on pickups or vehicles to avoid damage.
- To protect potatoes from the shock of shaking during transport, which results in tuber injuries, tie them down.
Sorting
Sorting distinguishes healthy tubers from those that are infected, rotten, or with defects, as well as from other farm trash. Sort manually or mechanically.
Grading
Potato tubers are graded according to size, making it easier for market vendors to choose their products. Grading can be carried out manually or using automated graders.
- Grading makes potato marketing easier since it makes it simpler for the farmer and the buyer to agree on a price depending on the size of the tuber.
- Since pricing is based on tuber size, grading maintains marketing fairness.
- Buyers can choose potatoes based on their intended use, such as planting seeds, making crisps, or consumption.
Storage
Pests and diseases are not present in proper storage. Farmers profit from effective storage because it enables them to delay sales until prices are higher, avoiding the low prices brought on by market gluts and overproduction right after harvest.
- During storage, potatoes need to be entirely dry and clean. A store with potatoes for consumption needs to be well-ventilated since humidity encourages bacterial and fungal infections.
- Use these procedures for efficient storage:
- use a store with good ventilation for potato seeds. For the potatoes that will be consumed, use dark stores.
- Mud-brick homes and thatched roofs will help keep stores as cool as possible.
- Instead of putting potatoes in bags, stack them loosely or in crates.
- To decrease humidity, stored potatoes should be elevated off the ground.
Storage suggestions for seed potatoes:
- Seed potatoes are to be kept in places with diffused light.
- Potatoes should only be arranged in three to four deep on shelves.
- Ensure adequate ventilation