ABSTRACT
Post-harvest losses are very high in most of the horticultural crops, including vegetables as they are highly perishable due to the presence of excess moisture, and if care is not taken in their harvesting, handling and transport, they soon decay and become unfit for consumption. Pre-harvest losses in vegetables can be either quantitative or qualitative. The productivity and quality of many crops depend on temperature. The effect of high light intensity stress is predominantly thermal in nature, though light bleaching of chlorophyll can occur. Wind injury can cause cold injury or winter injury, especially when the humidity is low at the time of the wind/cold period. Excessive soil salinity causes significant loss in productivity of most vegetables which are particularly sensitive throughout their growing period. Hail damage is sporadic in nature, but sometimes it causes huge damage to the crop. On-farm storage is required in remote and inaccessible areas of India to reduce losses in highly perishable fresh horticultural produce.
