Postharvest research and reality in developing countries

There has been significant research on postharvest in the last decades that led to the development of a diversity of appropriate technologies in several countries, which greatly improved the handling and quality of horticultural crops. Unfortunately, there is a persistent problem in the majority of the world (especially in Developing Countries), where great quantities of horticultural crops are still lost every year, quality deterioration is still a major problem, and many of these technological innovations are either not used or not used adequately. The problem is very complex in nature, and not due only to technical reasons. However, from the technical stand-point there are diverse problems related to "unavailability of adequate technologies", "unfamiliarity of availability of adequate technologies", "inadequate use of or difficulties in the adaptation of available proper technologies", or even the "refusal of using available proper technologies, due to different reasons". In this paper, some of the "technical" problems related to postharvest research and development in Developing Countries will be pointed out, their nature and possible causes will be discussed, and possible solutions will be suggested. Research is a very important activity, and therefore should be significantly increased in Developing Countries, but extension, education and technology transfer are as important and should be improved significantly.