Post-Harvest Handling, Storage and Marketing
What this domain tests
Harvest maturity, threshing and cleaning, grading, curing and drying, safe storage, storage pests, value addition and the marketing routes open to a Maharashtra farmer.
Core rules
- Maturity indices: grain moisture, colour change, days to maturity and leaf drop; for fruits, total soluble solids, firmness and peel colour.
- Safe storage moisture: cereals 12–14%, pulses 9–10%, oilseeds 8–9%. Above these, moulds and insects multiply and free fatty acids rise in oilseeds.
- Curing and drying: onion and garlic are cured in shade for 2–3 weeks with necks cut about 2 cm above the bulb; paddy is dried slowly to prevent cracked grains; grapes are dried for raisins.
- Storage: bag storage in ventilated godowns, bulk silos, cold stores (2–4 °C for onion, near 0 °C for grapes with sulphur dioxide pads) and controlled atmosphere for apples. Fumigation with aluminium phosphide is done only by trained operators.
- Grading and value addition: size and colour grading of onion and mango, dal milling, oil extraction, ginning, pulp and dried products all raise unit value.
- Marketing: APMC mandi, direct marketing, e-NAM, FPO aggregation, contract farming and export; note the role of MSAMB and NAFED and the GI-tagged products of Maharashtra.
Worked example
A farmer holds 10 tonnes of onion. Selling at harvest at ₹12/kg gives ₹1,20,000. Storing three months involves 20% weight loss, ₹6,000 storage cost and an expected price of ₹18/kg. Reasoning: saleable weight = 8,000 kg; gross = 8,000 × 18 = ₹1,44,000; net = ₹1,38,000. Storage adds ₹18,000, so it pays - but only if the bulbs were properly cured and the loss and price assumptions hold.
Traps
Quoting one safe moisture figure for all crops; storing onion without curing; comparing stored and fresh sale without deducting weight loss; and treating fumigation as routine farm work.