Transportation and distribution of fruits and vegetables are the most important. Fast transportation with minimum damage during shipment is vey important in successful marketing of perishable. For the local market Tractor, trolleys and bullock-carts are used and for a distant market transportation is mainly done by the road although it is very costly. 20% of the total produce is transported by mechanical means. The road transport is 3-4 times more expensive than rail. In India, Road Transport is preferred for shipment of fresh fruits simply because of the faster movement of perishable commodities and advantages of door to door services.
In India the transportation by Railway is much less than the other. In 1977 to 1978 transportation by road was 91.3% while by rail it was only 8.66%. Because road takes less time and having a door service than the rail for transportation of fruits and vegetable in road trucks and railways wagons is high defective and needs through improvement. Both the road trucks and railways wagons should have a special system of ventilation and arrangement to reduce the temperature and maintain proper relative humidity. This can successfully be done by adopting the technique of evaporative cooling without using high cost mechanical refrigeration.
The losses in transportation occurs due to physical and mechanical injuries under controlled transportation. Injuries under controlled transportation condition mainly temperature and relative humidity losses of hudge magnitude may occur. To over come this difficulty the produce should in the carriages. The carriage should be ventilated.
Efficient transport system can so a long way not only in reducing the post, harvest loss of horticultural produce but also in stabilizing the price fluctuation of the same commodity available in different corners of the country.
Source: agriinfo
