Post-harvest losses during marketing of tomatoes and technologies used to mitigate them in Mbale city, eastern Uganda.

Abstract

Tomato is a major vegetable crop that is used widely throughout the different strata of the population over the last century in Mbale city. It is one of the most important „protective foods‟ because of its special nutritive value and also an important source of antioxidants in the human diet.it has lycopene (an antioxidant) which removes cancer causing free radicals. This study therefore examined the postharvest losses in tomatoes and determine the relative interventions to mitigate them It involved data collection using simple random sampling technique where three divisions northern, wanale and industrial division were chosen and respondents were randomly selected from every division. Questionnaires were employed during data collection and data was analyzed using Excel and SPSS version 20. The results showed that males dominated females 39(53%) and 34(46%) respectively. Most farmers who were engaged were having between 20 – 30 years (47.9%). The farmers experience losses during harvest (15.5%) and after harvest (25.5%) however farmers and traders have technologies to minimize the losses which included use chemicals this has a negative impact on the health of consumers, use wooden boxes, basins with banana leaves, spread their tomatoes on the floor covered with grass, keeping them in holes to prolong the shelf life, dusting them with ash and keeping them in woven baskets. The study also revealed that tomato ansal f1 was the most grown variety. This study therefore concludes that despite the interventions used by the farmers, traders and significant research investment, there are still high loses of tomatoes during postharvest and this has resulted into negative effects on farmer’s income and household food security in Mbale city. Therefore the study concludes by recommending Coating tomatoes with alvera gel as its proven organic and effective by researchers(“Strategies to Reduce Post-Harvest Losses for Fruits and Vegetables,” 2019) Construction of feeder roads to the market areas to avoid scratches and damages, constructing large rooms in market areas for storage, creating more market for tomatoes to avoid over pilling by establishing more processing plants and empowering tomatoes farmers skills of adding value to tomatoes, sensitizing farmers on proper postharvest handling practices, value addition in tomatoes, constructing cold rooms and improving varieties that can stay longer, harvest tomatoes when they are ready, proper harvesting and storage, sensitization on planned production, training farmers on post-harvest techniques, breeding tomatoes with long shelf life.