Harvesting in Agriculture

Hello and welcome to a new week. I hope you all had a good weekend. From my end, I did. It's nice to be here in this @Steem-Agro community and I appreciate @muhammad-ahmad for this harvesting in agriculture lessons.

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What are the key steps involved in harvesting crops?

In an understanding statement, crops harvesting involves the gathering of matured and ready to harvest crops from the field/farm. These steps are quite critical in agriculture because the crops must be collected at their best quality and properly store to avoid any spoilage.

Harvesting process can be carried out by skilled workers or using machines for harvesting. These harvesting steps includes;

• Reaping: in this stage matured trust and panicles grown above the ground are removed.

• Threshing: here, food grains are separated from other cut crops grains like wheat,etc.

• Cleaning: this is an importance and careful step in harvesting steps, the edible food grains are cleaned of dust, contaminants, immature or non-green particles.

• Piling/stacking: this is when having said crops are stacked or piled for storage.

• Storage: some farmers used to arrested crops for consumption, while some farmers use their harvested crops for marketing. Dolls that use their gross a marketing must store the grains at a good storage space. There must be stored properly to avoid rodents and insects and environmental factors like temperature and moisture.

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why is post-harvest management important for maintaining crops quality?

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Most of the reasons why post-harvest management is important are:

• A successful post harvest management ensures the freshness of harvested crops, there by making the crops pleasing to the eye for the consumers.

• Commodities and safeguarded from best and animals when there is post-harvest management.

• Significant losses are prevented either in drying, storing or grain transporting.

• Post harvest management ensures the preservation of the nutritional value and also the flavor of the harvested crops.

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Explain how storage techniques can affect the shelf life of harvested crops

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There are several ways that storage techniques affects shelf life. These are;

• Temperature: this is one of the affecting factors of shelf life of crops. A cold storage reduces the ripening process of a crop, but some crops have different storage temperatures.

• Packaging: for vegetables and fruits improved packaging will extend their shell life. Modified Atmosphere Packaging(MAP) is used to control gases around crops, it limits oxygen around the crops to prolong it shelf life.

• Drying: when the roots of harvested crops are damaged, it will lead to decay, but it should be greatly dried. Drawing the outer skin of bulbs will reduce decay and water loss.

• Containers: for fresh produce, a good option for preserving is wood containers because it resistance to moisture.

Other techniques that are used to extend shelf life are; irradiation, chemical/natural preservatives, waxing, control atmosphere.

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