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Review
. 2017 Jan 15;6(1):8.
doi: 10.3390/foods6010008.

Reducing Postharvest Losses during Storage of Grain Crops to Strengthen Food Security in Developing Countries

Deepak Kumar  1 , Prasanta Kalita  2
Affiliations
Review

Reducing Postharvest Losses during Storage of Grain Crops to Strengthen Food Security in Developing Countries

Deepak Kumar et al. Foods. .

Abstract

While fulfilling the food demand of an increasing population remains a major global concern, more than one-third of food is lost or wasted in postharvest operations. Reducing the postharvest losses, especially in developing countries, could be a sustainable solution to increase food availability, reduce pressure on natural resources, eliminate hunger and improve farmers' livelihoods. Cereal grains are the basis of staple food in most of the developing nations, and account for the maximum postharvest losses on a calorific basis among all agricultural commodities. As much as 50%-60% cereal grains can be lost during the storage stage due only to the lack of technical inefficiency. Use of scientific storage methods can reduce these losses to as low as 1%-2%. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the grain postharvest losses in developing countries, the status and causes of storage losses and discusses the technological interventions to reduce these losses. The basics of hermetic storage, various technology options, and their effectiveness on several crops in different localities are discussed in detail.

Keywords: food security; grain storage; hermetic storage; postharvest losses; smallholders.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Various factors and types of losses during the supply chain of cereal crops in developing countries.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Postharvest losses in the rice value chain in various countries (in the case of a range of losses, an average of losses was used).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Illustration of the factors affecting the grain and microorganism respiration in the hermetic storage (Adapted from Cardoso et al. [72]).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Amount of losses (a) weight loss; (b) seed germination losses, for various grains due to natural or artificial insect infestation during storage in traditional storage vs. hermetic storage (in the case of a range of losses, an average of the losses was used).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Losses in maize grain after 90 days of storage in various storage structures (data extracted from Figure 1 and Figure 2 of Costa 2014 [31]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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