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A comprehensive introduction to the physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of produce growth, paired with cutting-edge technological advances in produce preservation Revised and updated, the second edition of Postharvest Biology and Nanotechnology explores the most recent developments in postharvest biology and nanotechnology. Since the publication of the first edition, there has been an increased understanding of the developmental physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology during early growth, maturation, ripening, and postharvest conditions. The contributors-noted experts in the field-review the improved technologies that maintain the shelf life and quality of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. This second edition contains new strategies that can be implemented to remedy food security issues, including but not limited to phospholipase D inhibition technology and ethylene inhibition via 1-MCP technology. The text offers an introduction to technologies used in production practices and distribution of produce around the world, as well as the process of sencescence on a molecular and biochemical level. The book also explores the postharvest value chain for various produce, quality evaluation techniques, and the most current nanotechnology applications. This important resource: - Expands on the first edition to explore in-depth postharvest biology with emphasis on developments in nanotechnology - Contains contributions from leaders in the field - Includes the most recent advances in postharvest biology and technology, including but not limited to phospholipase D and 1-MCP technology - Puts the focus on basic science as well as technology and practical applications - Applies a physiology, biochemistry, and biotechnology approach to the subject Written for crop science researchers and professionals, horticultural researchers, agricultural engineers, food scientists working with fruits and vegetables, Postharvest Biology and Nanotechnology, Second Edition provides a comprehensive introduction to this subject, with a grounding in the basic science with the technology and practical applications.

The ultimate goal of crop production is to provide quality produce to consumers at reasonable rates. Most fresh produce is highly perishable, and postharvest losses are significant under the present methods of management in many countries. However, significant achievements have been made during the last few years to curtail postharvest losses in fresh produce and to ensure food security and safety as well. This new book describes advancements in postharvest quality improvement of fresh horticultural produce. This book will be a standard reference work for postharvest management for the fresh produce industry.

Agriculture is an important component of the concept of sustainable development. Given the projected population growth, sustainable agriculture must accomplish food security while also being economically viable, socially responsible, and having the least possible impact on biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Deep learning has shown to be a sophisticated approach for big data analysis, with several successful cases in image processing, object identification, and other domains. It has lately been applied in food science and engineering. Among the issues and concerns addressed by these systems were food recognition; quality detection of fruits, vegetables, meat, and aquatic items; food supply chain; and food contamination. In precision agriculture, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a commonly used technology for estimating food quality. It is especially important when evaluating crops at different phases of harvest and postharvest. Crop disease and damage detection is a high-priority activity because some postharvest diseases or damages, such as decay, can destroy crops and produce poisons that are toxic to humans. In this paper, we use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)-based U-Net, DeepLab, and Mask R-CNN models to detect and predict postharvest deterioration zones in stored apple fruits. Our approach is unique in that it segmented and predicted postharvest decay and nondecay zones in fruits separately. This review will focus on postharvest physiology and management of fruits and vegetables, including harvesting, handling, packing, storage, and hygiene, to reduce postharvest loss (PHL) and improve crop quality. It will also cover postharvest handling under extreme weather conditions and potential impacts of climate change on vegetable postharvest and postharvest biotechnology on PHL.

A significant amount of the world's economy is based upon the international trade of agricultural produce. For the producing countries, a growing concern is the potential economic and ecological damage that invasive species could cause. While threats can be decreased through the regulation of items potentially carrying invasive species, the effect of such restrictions on international trade also needs to be considered. A balance must therefore be met that permits the transfer of produce while filtering out unwanted pests. Drawing on the author's extensive experience, the social and financial implications of phytosanitary trade barriers are reviewed. This book offers valuable and comprehensive coverage of pest related barriers and strategies for their implementation.

With the rapidly changing global climate, the agricultural systems are confronted with more unpredictable and harsh environmental conditions than before which lead to compromised food production. Thus, to ensure safer and sustainable crop production, the use of advanced nanotechnological approaches in plants (phytonanotechnology) is of great significance. In this review, we summarize recent advances in phytonanotechnology in agricultural systems that can assist to meet ever-growing demands of food sustainability. The application of phytonanotechnology can change traditional agricultural systems, allowing the target-specific delivery of biomolecules (such as nucleotides and proteins) and cater the organized release of agrochemicals (such as pesticides and fertilizers). An amended comprehension of the communications between crops and nanoparticles (NPs) can improve the production of crops by enhancing tolerance towards environmental stresses and optimizing the utilization of nutrients. Besides, approaches like nanoliposomes, nanoemulsions, edible coatings, and other kinds of NPs offer numerous selections in the postharvest preservation of crops for minimizing food spoilage and thus establishing phtonanotechnology as a sustainable tool to architect modern agricultural practices. Graphical Abstract

Reducing postharvest losses offers a significant opportunity to enhance food availability without requiring extra production resources. A substantial portion of cereal grain goes to waste annually due to a lack of science-based knowledge, unconscious handling practices, suboptimal technical efficiency, and inadequate infrastructure. This article extensively reviews losses occurring during postharvest operations across various crops, examining diverse postharvest operations in different countries. Recent advancements in postharvest technology research are thoroughly discussed. The primary obstacles and challenges hindering the adoption and implementation of postharvest technologies are also explored. The appropriate postharvest technology relies on specific factors, including the kind of crops, production locales, seasons, and existing environmental and socioeconomic conditions.

The native microbial flora and fauna are replaced by commercial chemical fertilizers and pesticides, in the current agricultural system. Imbalance of beneficial microbial diversity and natural competitors increases the severity of plant diseases. Hence, sustainable agricultural practices like bio-inoculant, stress tolerant consortium, crop rotation and mix cropping sequences is only the solution of recharging the microbial population in soils to make healthier for crop productivity and suppression of soil borne phytopathogen. Microorganisms use several direct mechanism activities, e.g. production of plant hormones (indole-3-acetic acid), ammonium, siderophore and nutrient solubilization, and indirect mechanism activities, e.g. hydrogen cyanide, chitinase, protease and antibiotic for plant growth promotion. The plant growth-promoting effect of bacteria, fungi, mycorrhizal fungi and algae is widely explored. Yeast is a single-celled microbe classified as members of the kingdom fungi. Yeast and their product use in the food industry, medical science and biotechnological research purpose but very few literatures reported that yeasts have the ability to produce a group of plant growth-promoting activities and biocontrolling activity. Therefore, the main aim of this mini review is to highlight the application of yeasts as biological agents in different sectors of sustainable farming practices.

Background Reduction of post-harvest loses of crops are crucial tasks in ensuring food and nutrition security. However, a lack of knowledge on the extent of post-harvest losses and its associated impeding factors are posing major challenges to effectiveness of grain post-harvest loss management strategy and to scale up for all other crop types in Ethiopia. The study estimates the magnitude of post-harvest losses of all crops and identifies its determinants. Methodology A national-level agriculture survey data were obtained from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Tobit model analysis techniques. Results The analysis shows 25.81% perceived annual average post-harvest losses of crops were obtained with considerable variation across the crop types. The main factors impeding post-harvest losses of crops were households with larger adult family size, higher levels of education attendance, and wealth status, large landholding size and damage of stored crops by insect pests infestation and/or rodent feeding due to utilization of traditional storage equipments, access to extension support services, cooperative marketing membership, and being far away from both all weathered roads and near local market centers due to a higher transaction costs associated with a lack of market information, contamination, and mechanical injuries. Conclusion Minimization of post-harvest losses of crops could be achieved through a holistic approach by providing short and long-term training on post-harvest management practices, promoting the use of post-harvest technologies, paying special attention to the institutional support systems (agriculture extension and rural credit services), strengthening the support for post-harvest handling technologies, reinforcing the existing farmer cooperative marketing, and improvements of the local market and road networking infrastructures of rural areas should be undertaken by the government in collaboration with non-government organizations.

There is an urgent necessity to shift our diets toward those rich in fruits and vegetables and at reduce postharvest losses of perishables. Approximately 20%–50% of fruits and vegetables are lost due to poor postharvest handling and pathogen infections in developing countries while it was estimated as 5%–35% in developed countries. Fresh fruits have evolved with a plethora of microorganisms having important roles in maintaining fruit health. However, little information is available on the dynamics, structure, and functional capacities of underpinning fruit microbiomes. The present review discussed environmental conditions favoring fruit-harbored antagonists and their different modes of action for suppressing postharvest pathogens in fruits. It also provides information on omics technologies such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), metaproteomics, metatranscriptomic, and metabolomics studies to characterize fruit microbiomes. With the advent of NGS and meta-omics technologies, microbiome research could bring remarkable development and understanding in succeeding biological treatments. In addition, they may provide us with a fundamental understanding of microclimate requirements for fruit microbiome establishment and microbiome shifts during post-harvest storage, which would be advantageous in developing composite biocontrol treatments for post-harvest decay management.

Starch branching enzymes (SBEs) are key determinants of the structure and amount of the starch in plant organs, and as such, they have the capacity to influence plant growth, developmental, and fitness processes, and in addition, the industrial end-use of starch. However, little is known about the role of SBEs in determining starch structure-function relations in economically important horticultural crops such as fruit and leafy greens, many of which accumulate starch transiently. Further, a full understanding of the biological function of these types of starches is lacking. Because of this gap in knowledge, this minireview aims to provide an overview of SBEs in horticultural crops, to investigate the potential role of starch in determining postharvest quality. A systematic examination of SBE sequences in 43 diverse horticultural species, identified SBE1, 2 and 3 isoforms in all species examined except apple, olive, and Brassicaceae , which lacked SBE1, but had a duplicated SBE2. Among our findings after a comprehensive and critical review of published data, was that as apple, banana, and tomato fruits ripens, the ratio of the highly digestible amylopectin component of starch increases relative to the more digestion-resistant amylose fraction, with parallel increases in SBE2 transcription, fruit sugar content, and decreases in starch. It is tempting to speculate that during the ripening of these fruit when starch degradation occurs, there are rearrangements made to the structure of starch possibly via branching enzymes to increase starch digestibility to sugars. We propose that based on the known action of SBEs, and these observations, SBEs may affect produce quality, and shelf-life directly through starch accumulation, and indirectly, by altering sugar availability. Further studies where SBE activity is fine-tuned in these crops, can enrich our understanding of the role of starch across species and may improve horticulture postharvest quality.