This collection of 12 agricultural extension posters — in a combination of English and Kinyarwanda — provide overviews of good postharvest handling practices for fruits and vegetables, including pre-harvest considerations, harvesting practices, postharvest sorting and transportation, crates as packaging, and cooling technologies. The posters were created by the Horticulture Innovation Lab project focused on reducing postharvest loss in Rwanda, to raise awareness among Rwandan farmers of ways to maintain vegetable quality, earn more income, and reduce food losses.
Four posters about preharvest and harvesting practices feature:
- A guide to preharvest intervals (PHI) for chemical applications, on how long to wait between pesticide applications and harvesting a crop
- A color and maturity guide to help farmers determine the ideal time to harvest fruits and vegetables at proper maturity
- An overview of appropriate tools to use when harvesting fruits and vegetables
- Temprature considerations related to harvesting time, the use of shade and benefits of pre-cooling produce underneath shade structures immediately after harvest
Two posters about sorting and transportation feature:
- Best practices for pre-sorting fruits and vegetables, to reduce contamination and maintain quality
- Best conditions and precautions to take when transporting horticultural crops
Two posters about using plastic crates for packing include information about:
- Comparisons of transporting fresh produce with plastic crates compared to traditional baskets or sacks
- Cost benefit analysis of using crates versus large baskets to transport tomatoes
Four posters on cooling technologies feature:
- Information about a cold room equipped with a CoolBot to store fruits and vegetables for higher market prices
- Information about the benefits of using a zero-energy cool chamber (ZECC) to maintain produce freshness
- A study on maintaining quality of fresh amaranth greens in the ZECC versus in ambient shade
- Considerations for how to build and use a ZECC
