ABSTRACT
Whether crops are raised for food or seed purposes, a bulk of the produce is lost during production, harvesting, threshing, drying, processing, storage, marketing, and distribution. One conservative estimate of food crop loss is 30--40% (1). May (2) estimated preharvest and postharvest losses of foods at 48 % on a worldwide basis. Seed loss varies greatly and is a function of crop species and variety, pests and diseases, climate, harvesting system, processing, storage, handling, marketing practices and methods, and the existing food/seed laws. Most of the information available on seed loss emphasizes quantitative losses caused by disease, insects, and rodents during storage. Besides these quantitative losses, enormous losses also occur in the nutritional quality and viability of seeds during postharvest handling, storage, and processing. Although reliable estimates for quantitative and qualitative losses of seeds during harvesting, threshing, drying, transportation, or processing are not available, it is clear that significant losses do occur and that their elimination or reduction warrants serious efforts at the farm, processor, trader, and consumer levels (3,4).
