Prospects and Challenges of Postharvest Losses of Potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.) in Ethiopia

Potato is known as a semi-perishable commodity and storage of both seed and ware potatoes which is problematic for most producers and consumers. The losses could be occurred during harvesting, sorting, cleaning, handling and packing, transportation, storage, distribution or marketing and processing. In Ethiopia most of the potato produced is mainly consumed as boiled, salad and stew preparations. Use of alternative recipes like french fries, crisps, flakes, flours, starches, pre-peeled potatoes and various snack food items has not developed well. Thus, the study was conducted to evaluate improved seed and ware potato storage, local farmers’ practices such as; storing under bed, storing in pit and extended harvesting for resource poor potato growers in central highlands of Ethiopia. The experimental design was complete randomized design (CRD) with three replications using two improved potato varieties. Improved ware potato storage diffused light store (DLS) were demonstrate to farmers through farmers field school (FFS) and farmers research group (FRG) participatory research approaches. FFS and FRG were organized from four districts and regular assessments were done for 105 days of storage period. From this study non-significant storage losses were observed. However, for the qualitative data, there were significant difference between the improved and the farmer’s/local storage practices in terms of taste, color change, sprouting and pest infestation.

The result revealed that storing potato on the ground under beds exposes the tubers for rapid sprouting, color and taste changes within few days. Especially in Haramaya district the tubers stored in the ground pits, according to the farmers practice, have rotten and excessively sprouted almost totally unlike the ones put in improved structures. On the other hand, extended harvesting has exposed the tubers for pest infestation. Even though, it is possible to use potato for ware through extended harvesting for some months, the losses due to pest infestation was extremely high. Thus, extended harvesting and other farmers’ practices are not effective for handling ware potato for long-term storage. It seems that the introduced improved seed and ware potato storage were the only effective option for potato grower farmers in central highlands where the temperature and relative humidity are suitable using locally constructed storage structure. Therefore, it was with great enthusiasm that the participated farmers highly interested with this improved practice and accepted to use the improved seed and ware potato storage structures for prolonged time and exploits the potential of this crop for food and nutrition security.

Keywords: Postharvest; Farmers field school; Farmer research Group; Ware potato storage