Effect of different natural storage conditions on keeping quality of potato at Munshiganj Region of Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

The experiment was conducted at Tuber Crops Research Sub-Centre (TCRSC), Munshiganj to find out the suitable natural storage conditions and to minimize post-harvest losses of potatoes at farmers’ fields immediately after harvesting. This experiment was made for two consecutive years 2018-19 and 2019-2020 production seasons. Six treatments viz. T₁ (rice straw), T₂ (dried water hyacinth), T₃ (dried potato herbs), T₄ (rice straw + shade), T₅ (dried water hyacinth + shade) and T₆ (dried potato herbs + shade) with a view to observe the performance of these treatments in regards to weight loss and potato rottage loss at different dates e.g. 30, 60 and 90 DAS (Days After Storage). The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatment T₄ (rice straw + shade) performed the best considering the total loss percentage for all recording dates followed by T₅ (dried potato herbs + shade) whereas the worst performance was observed in the case of T₃ (dried water hyacinth) in all dates. All the treatments combined with shade showed higher gross return, net income and marginal benefit-cost ratio (MBCR) than all treatments without shade. Among the treatments combined with shade, rice straw + shade was the most profitable in respect of gross return (Tk.1633.4), gross margin (Tk.1433.4) and marginal benefit-cost ratio (14.33), respectively.

Keywords: Potato, natural storage, keeping quality, benefit-cost.