Mechanization in Pre-harvest Technology to Improve Quality and Safety

Abstract

Crops provide proteins, carbohydrates, organic acids, vitamins, and minerals which are a major part of human nutrition and health. However, improving crop quality and shelf-life is a challenge in the context of the global horticultural food supply. Mechanization plays a vital role in securing the future of crop growers in developed countries. The demand for sustainable mechanization and services will continue to rise naturally with increase in demand of growing population for food, feed and biological industrial raw materials from agriculture. Mechanization increased productivity per unit area, improved the quality of work and products and reduced drudgery in farming activities, thereby making farm work more attractive. So adaption of mechanization in the pre-harvest stage is important that improves the product’s quality and safety. This chapter focuses on exploring the importance of mechanization, reasons behind the adoption of mechanization and its impact on the power availability, costs, labour and yield at pre-harvest stage to improve the quality and safety of horticultural produce. It also focuses on various pre-harvest factors such as genetic, environmental and cultural practices which affect the quality of produce and recent advanced practices to reduce the effect of pre-harvest factors that improve quality and safety parameter. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.