Management of post-harvest diseases of mango fruit

Abstract

Mango fruit is one of the most important cultivar in the konkan region. In post-harvest handling, mango fruit affected by number of post harvest diseases. Some of the pathogens that severely attack mango fruit are the fungal Colletotrichum, Lasiodiplodia and Aspergillus causing the post harvest diseases of the mango fruit. The presence of these pathogens can generate postharvest losses between 5-30% of mango production. In some places of konkan region, the fungicides such as Carbendezim has been used to control the fruit rot diseases such as Anthracnose, Stem end rot and Aspergillus rot. The carbendezim fungicide used in post-harvest may be dangerous to health due to its residue particles may be present in the fruit. To reduce and eradicate use of fungicides such as carbendezim in post-harvest, the chemical preservatives such as Calcium Chloride +Potassium Chloride + Sea Salt, Sodium Benzoate and Pottasium Metabisulphide has been tried as post-harvest treatments. These chemical preservatives controlling post- harvest diseases as stem end rot as compared to untreated fruits. There was no scorching effect of these chemical preservatives on the harvested fruits.