Improving methods for estimating post harvest losses

Transcription

1 Broad Topic Sub Topics/ Papers Reviewed Report Improving methods for estimating post harvest losses Post Harvest Food Losses Estimation - Development of Consistent Methodology by Jaspreet Aulakh and Anita Regmi A base paper entitled Post Harvest Food Losses Estimation- Development of Consistent Methodology by Jaspreet Aulakh and Anita Regmi has dealt almost all the issues pertaining to post harvest losses of agricultural products. The areas discussed in detail are Factors Contributing to Total Food Loss, Stages of Loss, Measuring Food Losses and Studies to Estimate Post Harvest Losses including their framework etc. The paper also contains very useful information concerning methodological issues for estimation of post harvest food losses. The authors have done a very good job by highlighting the work of various researchers, and it is not possible to list the entire literature related to this area because a large number of studies on the extent of harvest and post harvest losses have been appeared in literature. However, some of the initial studies undertaken in India merits to highlight. Further, it is suggested that the base paper need not discuss the specific results and as such the inclusion of Appendix I and Appendix II is not necessary. If these types of results are part of the base paper, then there are several important findings from different studies which may form part of this paper. In the early sixties, Government of India appointed a committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. V G Panse, the then Director of Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), New Delhi to assess the post harvest losses of food grains. This was the first study of its kind at the National level in India. The committee collected considerable information on the magnitude of losses from various government agencies, research institutions, etc. Following this, IASRI conducted a pilot methodological survey in in one district namely Aligarh (India) to study food grain losses in storage under the farmers conditions. The results of this survey provided considerable information of methodological interests for estimating losses in storage through method of random sample surveys.

2 The report of Post Harvest Grain Losses Assessment Methods published by the American Association of Cereals Chemists (1978) has dealt with assessment problems in detail, touching almost all the aspects of post harvest food grain losses. This also prompted FAO (1977, 1980, and 1981) to come out with a Manual on Assessment and Collection of Data on Post Harvest Food Grain Losses, and published for the benefit of the developing and underdeveloped countries. The manual was prepared with an aim to study the extent of post harvest losses of cereals based on the actual observations in the field. This manual which deals with food grains only contains detailed methodology for the data collection on losses in different operations and channels. Subsequent to these, very large numbers of studies were carried out in India for various food items. To name a few, Diwakar et al. (1983) suggested a methodology for the estimation of losses in food grains caused by the rats. Narain and Khosla (1984) discussed the methodological aspects of estimating food grains losses at different post harvest stages at farm, intermediary and warehouse levels. Bathla et al. (2004, 2005) conducted a pilot level sample survey in one district to develop methodology for estimation of harvest and post harvest losses of milk, meat, poultry meat, egg, inland and marine fish. Wanjari et al.(2005) conducted a pilot sample survey to develop methodology for data collection by observations for estimating post harvest losses of five oilseeds, namely mustard, soybean, cottonseed, sunflower and groundnut. Vishwakarma et al. (2007) however carried out study based on both actual observation and by enquiry. In most of the studies the losses were estimated either by enquiry or by actual observations and dealt with the specific food crops only. However the following study by Nanda et al. (2012) was undertaken in a very comprehensive manner by considering different crops and commodities by utilizing the information from both the sources of actual observations and enquiry. The objective of this study was to evolve suitable statistical methodology to combine both the data through enquiry and observation.

3 ESTIMATION OF QUANTITATIVE HARVEST AND POST- HARVEST LOSSES OF MAJOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IN INDIA S. K. Nanda, R. K. Vishwakarma, H.V.L. Bathla, Anil Rai and P. Chandra All India Coordinated Research Project on Post Harvest Technology, Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana and Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), New Delhi A comprehensive nation-wide assessment of quantitative harvest and post harvest losses for 46 major plant and livestock based agricultural produces has been carried out. This assessment includes only quantitative losses. Qualitative losses and subsequent loss of value were out of the purview of this present study. The qualitative loss is however accounted indirectly by reduction in quantitative loss. The assessment procedure was scientifically designed to cover the entire nation. Accordingly, data was collected from 106 districts out of 120 targeted districts. Stratified three stage random sampling was adopted for selection of ultimate sampling unit for data collection. Two blocks from each district and five villages from each block were selected. Ten farmers from each village were taken for the assessment of harvest and post-harvest losses at farm level. Apart from this, different marketing channels were also considered for assessment of these losses for different commodities. Suitable sampling procedures were adopted for selection of these channels so as to make a representative sample. These channels are, whole sellers, retailers, processing industries, commodities storage warehouses and units. The frequency of data collection for assessment of losses at farm level was as per the operation but for estimation of storage, it is on monthly basis. The assessment covered 14 out of 15 agro-climatic zones (Island region agro-climatic zone was not included). The assessment of losses was carried out both through interview as well as actual observations from a sub-sample. Data for the two methods were combined by assigning appropriate weighing factors before arriving at final losses for a commodity. This assessment of losses includes five cereals, four pulses, six oilseeds, eight fruits, eight vegetables, sugarcane, four seed spices, three plantation crops, milk, meat, inland and marine fish, poultry meat, meat, and eggs. In order to assess losses in different channels of commodity movements, operations considered

4 are harvesting, collection, threshing, grading /sorting, winnowing /cleaning, drying, packaging, transportation, and storage depending upon the commodity. All operations except storage are grouped under farm operations. Storage is further sub-divided into farmers, godown/ cold storage, whole-sellers, retailers, and processing units levels. Due to increasing mechanization, harvesting in several crops is partially manual and partially mechanical. Assessment for mechanized and manual modes has been done for paddy, wheat, mustard, soybean and safflower. Losses in case of combine harvesting includes losses in harvesting, collection and threshing. In order to arrive at total storage loss, loss percentages at various storage levels are estimated and a weighted average is computed using the quantity of produce stored at each of the levels. Moisture loss during drying was not considered as loss in this study. Under this study data collected through enquiry and observations for each selected district were analyzed separately and then the results were pooled by assigning appropriate weights at higher levels (i.e. agro-climatic zones, states etc.). Sampling weights were obtained for each record according to sampling design implemented for data collection at district level (i.e. weightage of sample number of farmers, villages and blocks to their actual number). For estimating the losses at agroclimatic zone level, weights were assigned based on the production of the specific crop/commodity in all the sample districts. Similarly post harvest losses at the national level were estimated. Statistically the estimates of loss and their standard errors were obtained using weighted estimators by pooling estimates from pooled data collected through enquiry and observation at agro-climatic zone level.

5 References American Association of Cereal Chemists (1978) Post harvest grain loss assessment methods. A manual of methods for the evaluation of post harvest losses. Bathla, HVL, Ahmed, T, Kasim DI, Jeeva, JC, Srinath, K, Unnithan, GR (2004) Assessment of harvest and post harvest losses of inland fisheries. NATP Report published by CIFT, Kochi. Bathla, HVL, Rai, A, Chaturvedi, AK and Ahmed, T (2005) Pilot sample survey for assessment of harvest and post harvest losses. Final Report of the NATP Project, IASRI, New Delhi. Diwakar, GD, Gupta, OP, and Singh, DV (1983) A study of estimation of losses in food grains caused by rats. Journal of Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics, 31(1), FAO (1977) Report of the action oriented field workshop for prevention of post harvest rice losses held at Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia, in cooperation with the Government of Malaysia, FAO, Rome. FAO (1980) Assessment and collection of data on post harvest food grain losses. Food and Agricultural Organization, Economic and Social Development, Paper No. 13, FAO, Rome. FAO (1981) Prevention of losses in cured fish. Fisheries Technical Paper No. 219, FAO, Rome. Government of India, New Delhi (1971) The report of the committee on Post Harvest Losses of Food Grains in India, Department of Food, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. IASRI New Delhi (1975) Report on pilot sample survey for estimation of crop losses in storage, Aligarh district (Uttar Pradesh-India) , Indian

6 Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi. Nanda, SK, Vishwakarma, RK, Bathla, HVL, Rai, Anil, Chandra, P (2012) Project Report on Harvest and Post Harvest Losses of Major Crops and Livestock Produce in India, All India Coordinated Research Project on Post Harvest Technology (ICAR), Ludhiana, Punjab, India Narain, P and Khosla, RK (1984) Statistical methodology for estimation of losses of agricultural products at different stages. Journal of Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics, 36(2), 74. Vishwakarma, RK, Wanjari, OD, Rai, A, Bathla, HVL and Gupta, RK (2007) New methodology to study harvest and post harvest losses in groundnut. Agricultural Situation in India, 63(11), Wanjari, OD, Vishwakarma, RK, Gupta, RK and Thakur, AK (2005) Pilot sample survey for assessment of harvest and post harvest losses of oilseeds, Final report of the NATP Project, CIPHET, Ludhiana, India.