ABSTRACT
Post-harvest and marketing systems are a chain of interconnected activities from the time of harvest to the delivery of food to the consumers (Abass et al., 2014). Agricultural commodities produced on the farm have to undergo several procedures such as harvesting, drying, threshing, winnowing, processing, bagging, storage, transportation and exchange before reaching the final consumer (Abass et al., 2014; De Groote et al., 2013). The primary role of an effective post-harvest system is to ensure that the harvested food reaches the consumer, while fulfilling customer satisfaction in terms of quality, volume and safety. PHLs in the developed countries are lower than in the developing countries because of more efficient farming systems, better transport infrastructure, better farm management, and effective storage and processing facilities that ensure a larger proportion of the harvested foods is delivered to the market in the most desired quality and safety (World Bank et al., 2011). For low-income countries, pre-harvesting management, processing, storage infrastructure and market facilities are either not available or inadequate (World Bank et al., 2011). In developing countries, significant volumes of grain are lost after harvest, aggravating hunger and resulting in the wasting of expensive inputs such as fertilizer, irrigation water and human labour.
