Postharvest Diseases of Papaya and Their Management

Abstract

Postharvest loss due to fungal infections is significantly high in papaya fruits. Various fungi cause rots in fruits of papaya. The postharvest pathogens like Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Sacc., Botryodiplodia theobromae Pat., Alternaria, Phomopsis, Fusarium, Aspergillus, Stemphylium and Pestalotiopsis attack the fruits and cause considerable damage to fruit production and quality. Ten important postharvest diseases of papaya and their management are discussed in this chapter. Improper handling, transit, storage and overall management lead to enormous losses, sometimes amounting to more than 60% of produce. Lower supply than demand tends to increase the commodity's cost which ultimately leads to unavailability of fruits. It is estimated that annual postharvest perishable loss in India is almost the same as the total amount consumed by the whole of the United Kingdom. Thus postharvest losses of perishables are a great setback to our agro-based economy. Modern techniques, viz. modified atmosphere packaging, use of radiation and edible coatings, can safely be recommended and used for increasing shelf life of several fruits. Use of bioagents on a large scale as postharvest management tools still has many issues to resolve, especially in developing countries like India where there is no regulatory control on bioagents and its formulations.