The Role of Postharvest Technology in Improving Nutrition and Promoting National Development in Developing Countries: Constraints and Challenges

There have been significant advances in postharvest research over the last few decades that have led to the development of a diversity of appropriate technologies in many countries including several developing countries. This has greatly improved the handling and quality of food crops, and contributed significantly to improving nutrition and national development. Improvements have been made in many aspects of postharvest technologies and handling of perishable foods, including harvesting indices, harvesting methods, pre-cooling methods and applications, storage techniques, packing and packaging, quarantine systems, transport systems especially by road and sea, modified and controlled atmospheres, etc. However, there is a persistent problem in most of the world (especially in many developing countries), where significant quantities of perishable foods are lost every year. Although postharvest R& D in several developing countries has improved significantly, many of the postharvest technological innovations are either not used or used inadequately. The problems in developing countries are very complex in nature, and are not only due to technical reasons. However, from the technical stand-point there are diverse problems related to ‘unavailability of adequate technologies’, ‘unfamiliarity with available adequate technologies’, ‘inadequate use of or difficulties in the adaptation of available proper technologies’, or even the ‘refusal to use available proper technologies, due to different reasons’. This paper discusses some of the advances in postharvest R&D in developing countries and some of the ‘technical’ challenges still faced, and suggests ways for further improvements.