In India transportation of vegetables for the local market is brought by bullock carts or tractor trollies. Transport and distribution of vegetables are important areas of post harvest losses. With improper packaging, 30-40 percent of vegetables perish in transit.. This causes direct losses along with the cost of transportation which is approximately negligible as compared to the volume of business. Proper packaging will help to avoid this. Hence to spend some money in preparing the vegetables for transportation, will be economical. Like on expensive labours from cities can be used in waste removal, for sorting and grading as per the needs of different market segments. Long distance transportation of vegetables, as it takes short transit period and less transit damage, is preffered by the road transportation. While the contribution of rail transport in vegetable movement is relatevely low.Introduction of longer and bigger vehicles (volumetrically),on the tractor trailer or trucks for transportation will also help in getting rid of some post harvest transport (PHT) losses. Proper ventilation facilities should be installed in transportation. The use of refrigerated trucks for the purpose has proved to be expensive.Modiefied atmosphere Systems like nitrogen spray which will keep the ambietnt temperature to allow longer shelf-life of vegetables. In case of vegetables procesed by individual quick freezing (IQF) technology, the IQF-vegetables should be transported from factory to refer contains to ship by refrigerated trucks. Vegetables with short shelf-life are used to be airlifted for export purpose and also in the hilly regions. |
|