Dhruba Raj Bhattarai , Giri Dhari Subedi , Ishwori Prasad Gautam , Swastika Chauhan

Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Horticulture Research Division Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol. 7, No. 26   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2017.07.0026
Received: 15 Sep., 2017    Accepted: 28 Sep., 2017    Published: 27 Oct., 2017

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Bhattarai D.R., Subedi G.D., Gautam I.P., and Chauhan S., 2017, Posthavest supply chain study of carrot in Nepal, International Journal of Horticulture, 7(26): 239-245 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2017.07.0026)

A study was conducted in Manahara-Kalimati road corridor and laboratory of Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Horticulture Research Division (HRD), Khumaltar in 2016-2017. Major carrot production sites in this corridor are Manohara Khola, Bodephant and Mulpani. The main collection point is Garcha Bazar and Bhaktapur. From this collection center, the produce goes to the Kalimati market. In carrot production pockets, grading is not practiced. Farmers mention that grading is labor intensive. Carrots are mostly packed in 75-85 kg capacity jute sacks. The postharvest loss of carrot was found to be 35%. The loss occurred at farm gate was 10%, at collection point it was 2%, at wholesale market 5% and finally at retail market 18%. According to wholesalers, carrots are graded in 2 categories i.e. branched/cracked and normal roots, branched/cracked ones are sold in 50% less price. It was found that during the production season, the wholesale price wrinkled very low (NRs. 26/kg) while during the lean period, the prices were significantly high (up to NRs. 137/kg). Furthermore, a research conducted in the laboratory of Horticulture Research Division, Khumaltar during February- March, 2017, calcium chloride treatment of 2.5% was found to be effective in increasing the storage life of carrots.

Postharvest loss; Shelf life; Calcium chloride; Collection center; Market