Post Harvest Management in Banana Crop

Banana is perishable in nature, so it can not be stored for a longer period at ambient temperature. For good market price it requires that fruit must be transported to the distant market without spoilage. A few main challenges faced by fruit industry are the enormous post-harvest losses, lack of information on handling, packaging system and post-harvest treatments. Attempts have been made to retard ripening and delay the senescence of fresh fruits by means of post-harvest treatments with senescence inhibiting chemicals and shelf-life has been reported to be extended. It is hoped that finding of this investigation will provide the basic as well as applied information and it will be a great help to research workers, banana growers and traders for better handling and reducing the post harvest losses in transportation of banana. Keeping this view in mind, a distance market oriented research (the present study) is undertaken to investigate the possibilities of extending shelf life of banana fruits CV. 'Robusta' in ambient conditions with and without packaging.