DOI : 10.26480/aedc.02.2025.65.69

ABSTRACT

Post-harvest handling practices significantly influence mango quality, marketability, and profitability. In a cross-sectional research design, a survey was conducted to evaluate the post-harvest practices among the mango growers in Chapainawabganj. Through a pre-prepared questionnaire data were collected via personal interviews. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 40 randomly chosen respondents from the four upazilas: Chapainawabganj Sadar, Shibganj, Nachole, Bholahat, and Gomostapur. The findings revealed that the predominant mango cultivars cultivated by farmers were Khirshapat, Gopalvog, and Langra.In case of harvesting, most of the farmer’s (40%) preferred to harvest mango according to the age of the fruits. A significant proportion of farmers utilized bamboo crates for packaging (62.5%) and rely on vans for transportation (64%), with mancozeb as the prevalent fungicide choice (52.5%), while storage challenges are noted as a primary post-harvest issue by 57.5% of farmers. Approximately 62.5% of farmers used both hand-picking and bamboo nets as harvesting methods, which frequently led to incidences of mechanical and physical injuries (50%) during post-harvest handling. The leading post-harvest diseases faced by the farmers were black mold and anthracnose. Analysis of respondent data revealed a significant positive relationship between the Amrapali cultivar and its susceptibility to anthracnose and stem end rot diseases, whereas the Langra cultivar exhibited a significant positive correlation with black mold and stem end rot diseases. At the same time Khirsapat cultivar had shown a significant relationship to anthracnose disease. The findings emphasize the importance of effective post-harvest handling practices to improve mango quality and profitability. Mango growers should adopt integrated disease management, along with training in optimal harvesting, storage and packaging to reduce injuries and losses.