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Postharvest Handling Systems

Encyclopedia of Smart Agriculture Technologies

Definition

Postharvest handling system includes all operations from harvesting the crop in the field to delivering the final product to the consumer. It comprises cooling, cleaning, sorting, grading, and preliminary packing in the field to the use of the most advanced infrastructure, transport, and storage of food commodities.

Introduction

The word “postharvest” refers to the agricultural produce supply chain that exists between harvest and consumption. A postharvest chain is, thus, an organized grouping of individuals, infrastructure, technologies, and procedures that are involved during handling and transportation of harvested commodities to the end consumers. Postharvest handling includes in-field-cooling, cleaning, grading, transportation, storage, packaging, and distribution. Deterioration in the agricultural produce starts immediately after harvesting due to various biological factors such as respiration rate, ethylene production, water losses, rooting, sprouting, pathogens, and...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Engineering, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Yaqoob Majeed & Muhammad Waseem

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  1. Yaqoob Majeed
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  2. Muhammad Waseem
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Correspondence to Yaqoob Majeed .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Prosser, WA, USA

    Qin Zhang

Section Editor information

  1. Department Head of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA

    Paul Heinemann

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Majeed, Y., Waseem, M. (2022). Postharvest Handling Systems. In: Zhang, Q. (eds) Encyclopedia of Smart Agriculture Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89123-7_125-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89123-7_125-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-89123-7

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Postharvest Handling Systems
    Published:
    14 April 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89123-7_125-3

  2. Postharvest Handling Systems
    Published:
    12 November 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89123-7_125-2

  3. Original

    Postharvest Handling Systems
    Published:
    01 October 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89123-7_125-1

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