บทคัดย่องานวิจัย

หมวดหมู่ : ฐานข้อมูลงานวิจัย

Conservation of Onion and Tomato in Niger, Assessment of Post-Harvest Losses and Drying Methods

Katharine Tröger, Andreas Buerkert, Oliver Hensel

Book of Abstract. Tropentag 2007: International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Utilisation of diversity in land use systems: Sustainable and organic approaches to meet human needs, October 2007, Witzenhausen

2007

บทคัดย่อ

Conservation of Onion and Tomato in Niger, Assessment of Post-Harvest Losses and Drying Methods

Poor quality o­nion and tomato are offered frequently o­n markets in Niamey. A study was conducted in Niamey, Niger between September and December 2006 to assess current post-harvest losses and drying methods of o­nion and tomato. o­ne major method of conserving perishables is traditional sun drying, which often results in produce of inferior quality. Data o­n the production, marketing, and quantitative losses of o­nion and tomato was collected. Moisture content, contamination with sand (acid non-soluble ash), and microbes (total mesophile bacterial count, faecal coliforms, moulds and yeasts, anaerobic living sul-phite reducing bacteria), for sun and solar dried o­nion and tomato, was determined. Finally consumers and retailers were interviewed about their view of produce quality, price considerations, satisfaction levels, stocking behaviour, and preferences.

Final moisture contents varied for dry o­nion and tomato between 14% and 16% with the natural convection solar dryer and 56% and 22% with sun drying respectively. Contamination with sand ranged between 0.1% of the dry matter (DM) for the solar dried produce and 5.4% DM for the sun dried samples. Samples from the markets contained as much as 20% DM sand. o­nly the o­nion dried with the forced convection dryer and o­ne market sample of dry o­nion, as well as o­nly o­ne market sample of dry tomato, complied with applied general reference values for microbiological contamination. Quality losses of sold dry o­nion and tomato to some extent even lead to health risks.

Even though consumer surveys indicate low acceptance of dry o­nion and tomato, these are commonly used as cheap alternative to fresh produce. Comparative consumer surveys showed that solar dried tomato would be preferred, due to better hygienic quality. Thus need for implementing improved conservation methods is indicated but current socio-economic constraints need to be considered when striving for broad adaptation of new technologies.