HARVEST LOSSES OF WHEAT CROP

Harvest losses (10-30%) in wheat represents one of the major factors affecting grain yield. these losses may be during harvesting and/or threshing operations. Although combined harvester is gaining popularity however, In most parts of Pakistan, wheat crop is still manually harvested and then mechanically threshed. Therefore, the current study was conducted on Latif farm of Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam to evaluate the harvest losses during the manual harvesting and threshing operations in wheat. Three popular wheat varieties (SKD-1, TJ-83 & KIRAN-95) were selected for this study. Wheat crop was manually harvested and then harvest losses were estimated by harvest losses were estimated on the basis of collection and analysis of leftover / spilled earth head in the freshly harvested field. Threshing losses were estimated by calculating the proportions of broken, unbroken grains and unthreshed ear heads. The study focused on harvesting and threshing operations and their impacts on crop production. The study depicted that harvesting operation was performed manually and threshing by tractor threshing charges were 05 and 10 percent of the crop production respectively while harvesting losses were high at the time of 16 percent due to over drying and unskilled labors used in the field. Technological advancements in agriculture machinery led to reduce the harvesting and threshing losses and therefore, the study suggested that necessary steps of mechanized operation may be taken for minimizing the losses.