Post harvest losses of food grains in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh

The study in post harvest losses of food grains was conducted during 2009–10 in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India by enquiry and observation method. Two villages were selected purposely in all eight blocks of the district for study. Fifteen food grain crops: cereals such as rice, wheat, millet, sorghum, maize; pulses such aspigeonpea, gram, pea, lentil, blackgram, green gram; and oilseeds such as mustard, toria (lahi), groundnutandsesame were identifiedas per survey of villages in all the blocks. Post harvest losses of various operations like harvesting, collection, threshing/sieving, cleaning/winnowing, drying, packing, transportation and storage of all fifteen crops were obtained by enquiry and observation method among the farmers of all the blocks. Wheat crop had maximum post harvest losses of 17.81% and was minimum in mustard crop (7.98. The perception gap was 7.11% in wheat crop.