The Impact of Post-Harvest Losses on Tomato Production in Bal‘ad District, Middle Shabelle Region, Somalia

Aims: The study was carried out in 2020 at Bal’ad District, Middle Shebelle, Somalia to investigate the post-harvesting losses on tomato production.

Methodology: The research used a descriptive survey research design particularly cross-sectional study, and it was quantitative in nature. From the population, the study selected 109 sample size as to represent the population by using Slovin formula with the maximum acceptable error of 5 %. The sampling procedure was non-probability particularly purposive sampling. Primary data were collected using questionnaire survey and field observations. Descriptive statistics such as frequent, figures and percentages were used and analyzed with the package of statistical package for Social Science technique (SPSS 22.0).

Findings: The results revealed that on-farm losses viz. too much irrigation after fruiting the tomato (96.3%), high winds (85.3%), improper harvesting stages (90.8%) and incidence pests and disease (93.5%) were affecting the tomato production in Bal’ ad district accompanied by off farm losses occurred due to lack of good infrastructure (96.3%), delaying transportation vehicles long time during inspection check point leads decaying (90.9%)and lack of consistent market (86.2%). The study suggested that the farmers should be provided technical training on the management of post-harvest losses of tomato production.