Trending smart agricultural techniques in postharvest handling to mitigate climate change impacts in Sri Lankan context

Abstract

Postharvest losses are very common and occur due to poor infrastructure and logistical arrangements, lack of technology, and insufficient knowledge, skills and management capacity of supply chain stakeholders. In Sri Lanka, the annual loss of fruits and vegetables during postharvest operation is around 30%–40% of the harvest and 20%–40% of the total harvest. High levels of postharvest losses may be the result of the lack of awareness and concern on proper postharvest practices, improper storage, harvesting methods, and packaging techniques. Most agricultural systems are mainly sensitive to climate change such as disparity in temperature and precipitation, which results in the high cost of agricultural management. Global warming, greenhouse gas emission, and increased atmospheric temperature not only threaten the crops but also the postharvest life of agricultural products. The postharvest losses are intensified by climate change, which leads to food insecurity and severely hampers smallholder farmers. Therefore, the food losses in the postharvest supply chain due to the differences in climate change must be reduced using advanced and innovative technologies. These include climate-smart processing technologies, solar energy-based techniques, thermal and non-thermal technologies, cutting-edge technology, ZigBee and sensor technologies, zero energy cooling chambers, novel, and intelligent packaging technologies, Internet of things (IoT), advanced plant breeding technologies, advanced food quality management strategies, automation, and advanced imaging technologies. Decisively, fostering awareness and education of farmers through extension services with the modern applications of postharvest operations will reduce the overall food losses and ensure food security by mitigating climate change.