Harvesting.

Abstract

Abstract Harvesting involves gathering a mature crop from the field where it has been grown, and transporting it for postharvest handling with minimal damage or losses. Once the earliest crops came under cultivation, harvesting processes did not initially change much from those used for gathering from the wild, i.e. hand harvesting and basic stone or wooden tools used for cutting and digging. In Egypt, the first crops of wheat were cut with flint blades; the scythe was introduced into Europe by the Romans, but the sickle had been in widespread use for centuries. By the 1800s labour shortages in both Europe and the Western United States saw the development of new and more efficient methods of harvesting grain crops. The first reaper equipment pushed by horses with shears cutting the wheat in front was developed in the early 1800s. The early 'Bell' reapers could cut 10 acres a day compared with a hand worker at only 0.3 acres a day. While the first reapers cut wheat stalks in the field at harvest, the process still required workers to manually pick them up; later models would cut and stack stalks. Harvesting equipment and machinery progressed through to steam powered, and then onto internal combustion engines in the early 20th Century. By the 1930-1960s mechanical harvesters for grain, beans and cotton became increasingly available, but many fruits, flowers, vegetables and other crops were still largely harvested by hand. By the mid-1960s the self-propelled tomato fruit harvester was developed in response to concerns that expected shortages of labourers would prevent harvest of the increasing volumes of processing tomatoes being grown through the 1950s. Later inventions and developments in mechanical harvesting equipment then yielded further labour saving and product quality improvements. Increasing levels of harvest mechanisation allowed many farmers to remain profitable in highly competitive markets by lowering the costs of production and removing the reliance on finding a suitable labour force during the harvest season. Despite this, a large proportion of fruit and vegetable crops destined for fresh consumption worldwide are still hand harvested, while mechanised harvest now dominates large scale production of major agronomic crops such as wheat, maize, soybean, cotton, rice, potatoes and other crops destined for processing.