COMPARATIVE STUDY ON POST HARVEST LOSSES OF POTATO UNDER DIFFERENT STORAGE CONDITIONS

Abstract

The experimental work was carried out to make a comparative study on post harvest losses of potato under different conditions (in-house store, in-basket store and cold store). The effect of storage conditions on various kinds of storage losses and pattern of changes in respiratory and reducing sugar level throughout the storage period was studied. The total loss was 4.383%, 8.539% and 13.043% for cold storage, in-basket storage and in-house storage conditions respectively. In cold stores, reducing sugar increased with storage time with maximum of value of 1.04%. While, Sugar accumulation was almost constant throughout storage time with values of 0.65% and 0.673% in 60th day of storage for in house and in basket stored potatoes respectively. Respiration rate in cold stores decreased with storage time with minimum value of 3.17 mg CO2/kg/hr. While, respiration rate increased with storage time with highest value of 6.025 mg CO2/kg/hr and 6.55 mg CO2/kg/hr for in-house and in-basket stored potatoes respectively. Thus it is concluded that storage losses and respiratory rate are minimum for cold stored potatoes but high sugar accumulation is a problem. In-house storage does not suffer excessive sugar accumulation but storage loss is maximum. In case of in-basket storage, besides being cheap and feasible, there is no problem of sugar accumulation and other storage losses are significantly lower than in in-house storage. But, loss due to sprouting is higher leading to higher respiration rate. This problem can be easily solved with the use of appropriate sprout inhibitors. Thus, in Nepalese context, in-basket storage can be the best option