Emmanuel Amwoka is an MSc. Horticulture graduate (BSc Agriculture – Crop Science major) and research assistant at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. My research interests are in postharvest management, agronomy and plant science. During my master’s research, I was involved in establishing the 1st smallholder aggregation centre in Kenya under the Yield Wise project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. I have vast
experience in capacity building, knowledge dissemination and technology adoption related to postharvest loss reduction. Ihave also been involved in organizing a number of seminarsand conferences, including 1st-3rd All-Africa Postharvest congress and exhibition, Agro2019 and Fruits and vegetables conference by FPEAK. During my studies I shared my research in various conferences and symposiums and was awarded with
3rd best poster presentation during the 2nd AAPHCE in AddisAbaba Ethiopia as well as 2nd best oral presentation during thegraduate student symposium organized by the consortium for innovation in postharvest loss and waste reduction, Iowa state University, USA. I co-manage the food processing hub at the
department of food science and technology where we strive to reduce food loss through innovative food processing and value addition.
Abstract
Mango fruit is a highly perishable climacteric fruit whose shelf
life is limited after maturity, resulting in high post-harvest
losses. Cold chain management is critical for the preservationof mango quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of selected postharvest handling practices and simple technologies to achieve cold chain, extend shelf life and preserve quality of mango fruit. In the first experiment, four mango varieties namely ‘Apple’, ‘Ngowe’, ‘Kent’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’ harvested at the mature green stage from the farmers’
orchards were used in an on-farm study. To demonstrate proper cold chain management, fruits were harvested early in the morning (before 8 am) and transported in crates which were lined with dampened newspapers to cool the fruits during transit. Upon arrival at the experimental site, the fruits were
precooled using evaporative coolers to remove field heat then stored in the Coolbot™ cold room. Alternatively, fruits were harvested at midday (noon), transported to the aggregation centre in open crates and then stored at ambient room conditions. A random sample of 3 fruits (per variety) was taken from each of the storage options after every 3 days to evaluate ripening-related changes including physiological weight loss,
colour, firmness and TSS. In the second experiment, ahomogenous sample of mature green ‘Apple’ and ‘Kent’ mango fruits were divided into 10 batches of 60 fruits each to evaluate the effectiveness of four different low-cost storage technologies (Coolbot, ECC, ZEBC & Wakati) to preserve quality and extend the shelf life of mango fruits when packaged in MAP and unpackaged. Three fruits per treatment were sampled after
every 3 days to evaluate ripening and quality-related changes including physiological weight loss, colour, firmness, and total soluble solids, titratable acidity, B-carotene, sugars, and vitamin C. Results showed that harvesting time significantly affected fruit pulp temperatures at harvest with fruitsharvested before 8 am recording lower pulp temperatures (average 16.4oC) compared to the fruits harvested at noon
(average 31.4 oC). Proper cold chain management delayed ripening as evidenced by slower softening and increase in percentage TSS. Proper cold chain management extended shelf life by at least 18 days compared to poor cold chain management. In the second experiment, cold storage significantly extended mango shelf life for ‘Apple’ and ‘Kent’ mango fruits compared to storage at ambient room conditions.This was evidenced by lower respiration rate, slower rate of softening and colour changes compared to ambient room
conditions. Fruits under cold storage combined with MAP had alonger shelf life (up to 9 days more) and retained better quality attributes at the end of storage. The results of this study show that proper harvest and postharvest handling practices coupled with simple cold storage technologies can be used by
smallholder farmers to attain desirable cold chain and preserve the postharvest quality of perishable fruits such as mango.
Important Links
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NdGYDgcAAAAJ&hl
=en
Research Supervisors
Prof. Jane Ambuko
Prof. Margaret Hutchinson
Prof. Willis Owino
