1 • 100 Under $100: Tools for Reducing Postharvest Losses 100 UNDER $100: TOOLS FOR REDUCING POSTHARVEST LOSSES A woman’s cooperative in Mawali village, Lembeh Island, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, making snacks - Photo: ©IFAD/Susan Beccio Betsy Teutsch, Author Lisa Kitinoja, Technical Editor CONTENTS Technical Editor’s Foreword 6 Author’s Foreward 8 Introduction . 10 Postharvest Loss Reduction Super Tools and Icons 11 Section 1 — Farming . 14 INTRODUCTION 15 10. Digging Tools for Roots and Tubers 39 1. Planning Tools 18 11. Pole Pickers for Tree Fruits 41 2. Low Tunnels, High Tunnels, 12. Reusable Plastic Crates and Liners 43 and Greenhouses 21 13. Field Handcarts 45 3. Trellising 24 14. Pre-Sorting Harvested Crops 4. Pruning and Thinning 27 at the Farm 47 5. Knives, Clippers, and 15. Field Packing 49 Secateurs 29 16. Curing Roots and Tubers 51 6. Crop Maturity Indicator: 1 7. Curing Bulbs: Garlic and Onions 53 Refractometer 31 18. Tarpaulins and Ground Cloths for 7. Crop Maturity Indicator: Air Drying Crops 56 Color Charts 33 19. Mechanical Threshing 58 8. Harvesting Bags 35 20. Shelling 60 9. Smooth Buckets and Containers 37 Section 2 — Packinghouse . 62 INTRODUCTION 63 32. Packing Cartons, Crates, and Boxes 90 21. Cleaning the Produce 65 33. Interior Package Lining and Cushioning 22. Chlorinated Wash 68 for Reducing Product Injuries 93 23. Digital Temperature Probe 70 34. Plastic Liners and Packaging to 24. Hot Water Treatments 72 Retain Mosisture 95 25. Preservative Paste Treatments 74 35. Packaging Enclosures and 26. Trimming Produce 76 Modifications 98 27. Waxing 78 36. MAP (Modified Atmospheric 28. Sorting Tables/Manual Sorting 80 Packaging) and Shrink Wrapping 100 29. Color Charts for Sorting 37. Hand Dollies and Hand Pallet Jacks 103 and Grading 82 38. Evaporative Pre-Cooling 105 30. Sizing Rings and 39. Pre-Cooling: Hydro-Cooling with Mechanical Sizers 85 Cold Water and Ice 109 31. Packing by Hand 88 Section 3 — Value Addition/Food Processing . 111 INTRODUCTION 112 49. Pre-Treatments: Blanching and Steaming 40. Sanitation 114 + Honey and Ascorbic Acid Dips 135 41. Graters, Choppers, and Slicers 116 50. Canning and Bottling—Boiling Water 42. Fruit Presses 118 Bath and Pressure Canners 137 43. Pedal Powered Machines 120 51. Fruit Leathers and Osmotic Fruit 44. Low-Cost Grain Dryers 122 Dehydration 139 45. Low-Cost Moisture Meters 125 52. Preserving Herbs and Dried Vegetables 46. Direct Solar Drying for Fruits and in Edible Oils 141 Vegetables 127 53. Fermentation 143 47. Indirect Solar Drying 130 54. Processing Grains and Pulses 145 48. Drying: Heat-Assisted, Forced Air, 55. Micronutrient-Fortified Foods, and Natural Freezing 133 Biofortified Foods, and Edible Insects 148 Section 4 — Storage . 151 . INTRODUCTION 152 67. Improved Storage Area Ventilation 56. Storage Sanitation 155 Systems: Fans and Turbines 179 57. Make Your Own Hermetic Sealing 68. Compatibility and Temperature Grain and Seed Storage Containers 157 Management for Fruit and 58. Hermetic Sealing Storage Bags 159 Vegetable Storage 181 59. Hermetic Sealing Free-Standing 69. Ethylene Management 184 Dried Grain Containers 161 70. Evaporative Cooling Structures: 60. Hermetic Sealing Metal Silos Charcoal Coolers 186 and Cans 163 71. Evaporative Cooling: ZECC, 61. Natural Material Hermetic Sealing: Zero Energy Cool Chambers 188 Mud and Earth Clay Silos 166 72. Solar Cold Micro-Room 62. Oxygen Absorbers and Dry Ice 168 Sub-Contracting 191 63. Green Pesticides: Natural Treatments 73. Natural Underground Cooling 193 for Food Storage 170 74. Vegetable and Fruit Storage Innovations: 64. Pallets: Benefits and Best Practices 173 Evaptainers and Wakati Storage 65. Improved Storage Structure Design 176 Chambers 195 66. Best Practices for Storage 75. Pest Traps: Insects and Rodents 197 Room Stacking 178 Section 5 — Transportation . 199 . INTRODUCTION 200 79. Improved Loading Techniques 207 76. Optimizing Packaging and 80. Insulated Packages and Palletizing for Transport 202 Insulating Blankets 209 77. Bicycles, Tricycles, and Wagons 204 81. Cool Packs: Phase Change Materials 78. Cushioning Loads and for Lowering Temperatures 212 Avoiding Overloading 206 Section 6 — Markets: Local to Global . 214 INTRODUCTION 215 86. Misting or Sprinkling with Cool, 82. Raised Display Stalls with Sunshades 217 Clean Water 227 83. Portable Stores: Bikes, Trikes, 87. Market Access: Agricultural Co-ops and Wagons, Carts, and Cars 219 Women’s Self-Help Groups 229 84. Scales: Weights and Measures 222 88. Branding 232 85. Sorting/Repacking/Trimming and 89. Value-Added Certifications: On-Demand Ripening 225 Organic and Fairtrade 234 Section 7 — ICT: Information and Communication Technology . 237 INTRODUCTION 238 92. Video/TV for Agricultural Education 244 90. Agricultural Extension Agents 240 93. Mobile Phones/Apps 247 91. Radio 242 94. Computers and the Internet 250 Section 8 — Legal and Financial . .252 INTRODUCTION 253 98. Land Titling, Certificates, Deeds, 95. Capital: Savings, Credit, and Loans 255 and Tenure 261 96. Mobile Money 257 99. Border Crossings 263 97. Contract Farming 259 Tool 100 — Postharvest Resource Centers . 265. AfterWord: Essays . 268 1. Shared Tools: Leveraging 4. Plastic: Challenges and Collective Power 269 Opportunities 275 2. The Global Effort to Reduce 5. Female Agricultural Workers: Gender Food Loss and Waste 270 Equity and Postharvest Loss Reduction 280 3. Combating Global Warming by Reducing 6. Looking Ahead: Promising Tools 282 Food Loss and Waste (FLW) 273 General References and Resources . 285 Glossary . 309 . TECHNICAL EDITOR’S FOREWORD Recently, Food Loss and Waste (FLW) has become a the purpose of making money Small-scale farming global topic of keen interest, and reducing FLW is being can be a source of income generation for families, promoted as a “$700 billion business opportunity” but also provides [on .bcg com/2NTMRWm]. Feeding Earth’s growing improved nutrition population will require both reducing the currently high levels of FLW and taking better care of our pro- ecological and environmental well-being ductive resources (Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2018 energy efficiency [bit .ly/2S788z6]) The United Nations has included reducing FLW by 50% by 2030 in its Sustainable balanced community development Development Goals (SDGs) In the USA, since I first started working in this My education in postharvest biology and technol- field in the early 1990s, there has been huge growth ogy began in 1980, and during my graduate school in the number of farmer markets, CSAs, and cot- years I was privileged to work with Dr Adel A Kader tage scale food processing ventures Worldwide, at the University of California, Davis as a lab research smallholder growers produce food using much less assistant and as a teaching assistant He mentored fertilizer, irrigation, diesel powered equipment (trac- me for more than 30 years as I worked as a post- tors, combines) and other inputs that require energy harvest consultant, and introduced me to Dr Awad to manufacture (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides) M Hussein (University of Alexandria, Egypt), the UC They tend instead to use “people power” and manual Davis postharvest faculty, and dozens of research- labor for weeding, cultivation, harvesting and pack- ers and extension specialists in developing countries ing, which creates local jobs Industrial farming has Dr Kader, Dr Hussein, and many of my postharvest Infographic: AGrowingCulture org 6 • 100 Under $100: Tools for Reducing Postharvest Losses mentors including Dr S K Roy (IARI, India) and Win are fellow Brandeis University graduates who share Winogrond (managing director of Dole’s banana-pine- a love of global travel and environmental protection, apple operations in the Philippines and Thailand) have and I enjoyed spending time digging through piles of passed away, but some of their postharvest wisdom old research studies, presentations, extension publi- is being passed down via this new book cations and travel photos Thank you to my husband If any of my friends have wondered why I chose John, and my family and close colleagues Lizanne to work in the difficult and challenging field of low Wheeler and Hala Chahine-Tsouvalakis for their con- resource food system development, the simple tinuous support Thank you to everyone who sent us graphic on the previous page illustrates how impor- photos or gave us permission to use their images tant it is to support small scale and female farmers Thank you to the PEF Board of Directors for spon- in their work and livelihoods soring this book project, and especially to Dr Diane As I come to the end of my career, I hope many M Barrett, Dr Deirdre Holcroft, Dr Majeed Moham- others will pick up the “reducing postharvest loss for med, Bertha Mjawa, and Vijay Yadav Tokala for their small-scale farmers, traders and marketers” banner reviews and editing of the early drafts Finally, a grand and continue to help us move toward a cleaner and thanks to Agribusiness Associates Inc, Postharvest greener world Innovations LLC, and the Global Cold Chain Alliance Thank you to Betsy Teutsch for sharing her won- for sponsoring the production of the e-book edition derful journey into the burgeoning field of postharvest training While working with Betsy, I learned that we —Dr Lisa Kitinoja, La Pine, Oregon - December 2018 Postharvest trainer Solange Musanaze training young people at the new Postharvest Resource and Training Center in Rwanda - photo: Bertha Mjawa 7 • 100 Under $100: Tools for Reducing Postharvest Losses AUTHOR’S FOREWORD Two years ago,