Abstract
This research was carried out to achieve the objective of finding out the performance of a developed potato storage system in storage life and nutritional quality and comparing the system to the traditional practice in Bangladesh. A laboratory version of improved design of potato store and its construction was made at Bangladesh Agricultural University which consisted an evaporative cooling chamber, made of reinforced concrete cement; partially filled-in with water. Two varieties of potato (Diamant and Lal Pakri) were used in this research. Both large and small types for each kind of potato varieties were taken. Experimental design was set up for both improved storage bin and farmer's traditional practice. Spoilage, sprouting, shrinkage, moisture content, vitamin C, and total sugar content of potato were determined for both methods of storage at a regular interval and results were compared. Economic benefit of the developed storage system over traditional practice was also determined. From the result of the study, it appeared that the improved potato storage bin was better in shelf life and nutritional quality for storing potato than the farmer's traditional practice.
Highlights
Potato is one of the most important staple crops in the human diet around the world
These figures indicate that the average spoilage of all four categories of potatoes in the Improved Storage Bin was 20.06% lower than that of Farmer’s Traditional Practice
The Evaporative Cooling Chamber at the bottom of the Improved Storage Bin positively contributed in cooling the potato as well as maintaining the required humidity inside the bin
Summary
Potato is one of the most important staple crops in the human diet around the world. Potatoes have been grown in Bangladesh since the 19th century. About 81% of the total potatoes produced in the country are harvested from January to April and are available for market, but only 28% of those potatoes are demanded as ware potatoes during the period. This creates a surplus of 53% of ware potatoes, which have to be used or stored over the 6 months from May to November (Hossain et al, 2009). Only 25 – 30% of the total potatoes produced in the country can be preserved in cold storages. In the year 2008, about 27.5% of total production of potato was stored in the cold storage including seeds (Rashid, 2008). Rest of the potatoes was stored by using traditional storage system
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