PRE-HARVEST, HARVEST AND POST-HARVEST STRATEGIES FOR ORGANIC PRODUCTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Growers and storage operators handling organic fruits and vegetables not only cannot use un-approved chemicals or treatments that are widely-used on conventionally-grown produce, there are fewer pre- and post-harvest technologies available for use on organic, compared with conventional fruits and vegetables. There has been insufficient effort to provide new quality-maintaining technologies for organic products, resulting in few post-harvest methods being available for organic fruits and vegetables. The greatest need is to develop strategies to control post-harvest decay and disorders. Recent advances in controlled atmosphere (CA) technology, e.g., Dynamic CA (DCA), will be discussed since CA technology is a known technology that, depending on the commodity, can maintain quality as well as reduce decay and/or eliminate the use of insect and disorder-controlling chemicals. Other non-chemical post-harvest technologies which may be successful will also be discussed, e.g., ethylene and other sprout control technologies, UV-C treatment, heat treatment, anti-microbial surfaces, and natural volatiles. More research is needed on each of these technologies, both singly and in combination with each other.