Agro Economic Research Centre, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana – 141 004, Punjab
*Author for correspondence Email: dkg_59@rediffmail.com
§This research article is drawn from research report entitled “Assessment of Pre and Post Harvest Losses of Major Foodgrains in Punjab“, carried out by Agro Economic Research Centre, Ludhiana, and sponsored by Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi
The crop losses during the process of harvesting, threshing, transportation and storage of foodgrains are quite significant. The present study has estimated the extent of losses occurring during post- harvest phase of wheat crop based on the experience of 120 wheat-growing farmers of various farm-size categories from Ludhiana and Ferozepur districts of Punjab. The study has observed that harvesting losses were more for the late harvested crop due to shattering of the grains, while losses during transportation, handling and rodents attack in the case of stored grains have been found insignificant. In totality, the post-harvest losses have been worked out to be 1.84 per cent currently. Earlier studies had estimated such losses to be 9.3 per cent during 1971 and 3.71–3.85 per cent in 1992. Thus, better post-harvest management has resulted in minimizing post-harvest losses. The study has suggested timely harvesting of wheat crop and organization of training programmes for control of rodents/fungus/pests attack to further curtail the losses at field level.
Post-harvest losses, wheat crop, post-harvest management, Punjab
