During the three-day Agri & Dairy Tech Andhra-2016, which was held in India from Thursday 4 February to Saturday 6, Kenes Exhibitions general manager Prema Zilberman discussed India's post harvest losses. According to Zilberman the reduction of post harvest losses is yet another way to make agriculture profitable.
Kenes Exhibitions is the organiser or Agritech Israel and Agritech Peru.
Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the conference, Ms Zilberman said that while the post harvest losses in the West were between 12 per cent and 30 per cent of the production, the post harvest losses in India were closer to 60 per cent.
With improved post harvest technology, the losses could be drastically reduced in horticulture crops. But, post harvest management for horticulture begins right from the sapling stage. For mango, the amount of water given to the trees, the length of the stem and the way the fruit is ripened constitute post harvest management, she said.
Peru was another country where Mango was a big crop, but grows in a different season. When the mango season is in its peak in India, there will be no fruit in Peru and vice-versa. So. it was possible for the farmers to exchange the produce, Ms. Zilberman said.
There was also high regard for Indian technology in countries like Peru because it was comparatively inexpensive, she said.
Drip irrigation
Experiments were being conducted for the cultivation of field crops with drip irrigation, she said. The Kenes Exhibition was helping cultivators in South America, Europe, Spain and Italy.
In India it had conducted exhibitions and conferences in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and it was going to conduct an exhibition-cum-conference in Vijayawada every year from here onwards, she said.
Source - freshplaza.com
