The effects of post-harvest handling techniques on profit levels among tomato farmers in Wobulenzi Luweero district

Abstract

The postharvest shelf life and quality of vegetables largely depends upon postharvest handling practices, treatments and harvesting method. Due to the perishable nature of the produce, fruits and vegetables should be dispatched and used within a specific time frame in order to attain reasonable levels of profits for the farmers or end users. In this study, the effects of post-harvest handling techniques on profit levels among tomatoes farmers in Wobulenzi, Luweero district was examined and a sample of 65 respondents from four cells of the study area was used. Data from the respondents was obtained through the use of Questionnaires, interviews and the SSPS software was used to conduct the analysis From the captured results, more respondents used post-harvest techniques in the tomato enterprise and the most used techniques included; maturity indices, shading, chemicals usage pre-harvesting, storage, washing/cleaning tomatoes after harvest, sorting/grading of tomatoes, use of chemicals after harvesting tomatoes and packaging (improved containers during transportation of tomatoes to the market) in descending order. Both the packaging material choice and sorting/grading had a significant impact on the quality and quantity of the end output available for sales hence the amount of money realized at the end of the production season of the tomatoes. Many respondents agreed to the listed attributes in the study as the result of practicing the various post-harvest techniques. However, this was contrary to the chemical usage on harvested tomatoes which had high number of respondents disagreeing to its contributions to the listed attributes in the study and yet its usage was still high. Lastly, more studies on the impacts of chemical use as a post-harvest handling technique in tomato growing should be done as large number of farmers are still involved in the practice. The role of the soil type and properties in tomato quality and quantity should also be examined as majority of the farmers occupy wetland areas. This information will be a step towards devising effective solutions to soil conservation as well as boosting tomato production yields.