Mango Postharvest Technologies: An Observational Study of the Yieldwise Initiative in Kenya

Hory Chikez, Dirk Maier and Steve Sonka
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Hory Chikez: Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, 1340 Elings Hall, 605 Bissell Road, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Dirk Maier: Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, 1340 Elings Hall, 605 Bissell Road, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Steve Sonka: Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, 1340 Elings Hall, 605 Bissell Road, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: Several studies have evaluated the effects of postharvest technologies on postharvest loss (PHL) incurred at a single stage of a food value chain. However, very few studies have assessed the effect of multiple technologies on PHL incurred at various stages of a food value chain. This study evaluated the effect of five technologies (harvesting tools, cold stores, plastic crates, fruit fly traps, and ground tarps) promoted by the Rockefeller Foundation Yieldwise Initiative (YWI) in Kenya on PHL incurred at three mango value chain stages (harvest, transportation, and point of sale). After extensive screening of the YWI data, the Kruskal–Wallis statistical test was used to compare each YWI promoted technology to smallholder farmers (SHF) traditional practices. Results indicated that plastic crates used to transport or store mangos and fruit fly traps used to attract and kill fruit flies were statistically significant ( p < 0.05) in reducing PHL at the point of sale. Meanwhile, no statistical evidence of PHL reduction was observed from SHF using harvesting tools, cold stores, and ground tarps. Cold stores were the least adopted of the promoted technologies due to their high costs of implementation and utilization. While this study asserts that increased technology adoption is associated with PHL reduction, further research is needed to identify additional factors that favor technologies’ efficacy in reducing PHL in similar food value chains.

Keywords: postharvest technologies; mango postharvest loss; Yieldwise Initiative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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