Extension strategies to promote post-harvest management and value addition: A review

Abstract

Post-harvest losses among agricultural commodities remain an important challenge to food security, farmers' income, and agricultural productivity as a whole. Effective post-harvest management and value addition are critical to reduce losses, retain quality, and improve marketability. Agricultural extension services can be crucial in knowledge dissemination, capacity building, and promoting innovation for stakeholders, including small and marginal farmers. This review critically analyzes different extension approaches used to enhance post-harvest handling, storage, processing, packaging, and marketing of farm produce. Important strategies like farmer field schools, ICT-based advisory services, participatory training, capacity building programs, public-private partnerships, and policy advocacy are elaborated. The review also focuses on the involvement of women and youth in post-harvest management and identifies successful case studies from India and other developing nations. It concludes with suggestions for strengthening extension frameworks to support sustainable value addition and post-harvest systems.