Potential for cold storage of horticultural commodities in tropical countries
Liette Connolly-Boutin
Thesis, Master of Science (Bioresource Engineering), McGill University. 105 pages. 2008.
2008
บทคัดย่อ
An evaluation of the use of short-term cold storage of tomatoes to tide over the cyclical market glut of horticultural products was conducted in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Farmers stored their harvest at a rental commercial cold-storage facility in the city and at an experimental cold store at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore. The goal was to study the storage characteristics of the produce as well as to assess the economic benefits of adopting such an intervention. The temperature and relative humidity conditions at both locations and the fate of the produce were monitored. The proportion of marketable produce diminished significantly as the storage period increased, with major losses occurring due to microbial damage. Differences in the air conditions at the locations did not have a significant effect on the storage-related losses of produce. Economic analysis showed that short-term cold storage would not aid farmers unless measures were taken to reduce the microbiological losses during postharvest handling.