An Investigation of Tomato Handling Practices and Its Postharvest Losses along Supply Chain: The Case of Adea Wereda, East Shoa, Ethiopia.
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2019-06
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Abstract
Tomato has significant economic importance in Ethiopia. The study was conducted in 2019 in two
kebeles(Godino and Denkaka) located in East Shewa Zone of Oromia National Regional State,
Ethiopia, located southeast of Addis Ababa. The Objective of the study is to examine the handling
practices of tomato along supply chain, to identify the constraints of Postharvest losses of
tomatoes along supply chain and to estimate the value of tomato losses at different stage the in
the study area. Purposive and Multiple stage sampling technique were employed to sample
representative farmers and traders’respondents(N=222).Data was gathered through
questionnaire, observations, key informant interview and focus group discussion. Data were
analyzed using descriptive and tobit stata. Chi2(0.89) the age, marital status, level of education,
washing and cleaning, family size, experience in farming, mode of transportion,sorting and
grading, loading and unloading, training, packing by carton and marketing information highly
positively significant affect tomato post harvest management practices at farm level at p-vale
0.000 or 99%. The total postharvest loss of tomato was estimated to be about 16.82% at the farm
level.It can be concluded that significant amount of tomato loss occurred in the supply chain
which is mainly attributed to poor postharvest handling practices. Based on the findings of this
study it is hereby recommended that postharvest technology should support tomato farmers as
well tomato traders for this reason, both sector agricultural and trade an industry work in
collaborate to provide training on post-harvest handling practices in order to increase farmer’
and traders’ incomes and minimize tomatoes wastages in the study area.
Keywords: Tomato, Postharvest handling practices, Post-harvest losses, farmers, Traders,
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Keywords
Tomato, Postharvest handling practices, Post-harvest losses, farmers, Traders,