INTRODUCTION TO POST-

HARVEST HANDLING AND

SEED TECHNOLOGY
(CRSCI419-18)

ANDRES L. DELA CRUZ JR.

Instructor

College of Agriculture
Rizal Branch
For this Subject:

Focus
•Seed Crops
•Post-Harvest Technologies and Practices
•Importance of each technology and related
practices
•Current situation of the Philippines in Handling
Seeds relative to PH
•Economic Impact on Micro and Macro level of
Seed Industry in the Philippines

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
Subject Requirements:

1. Attendance to synchronous or scheduled virtual

meetings
2. Reading Assignments and Reaction paper
3. Examinations (Quizzes, Mid-Term and Final
Exams)
4. Micro-Teaching (15-min presentation)

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
Getting to Know the Class…

Name : Andres L. dela Cruz Jr.

Nickname:“Andie”
Address :Luna, Quirino, Isabela
Birthday/Age: 7 September 1982, 39yrs.
Civil Status: Married, 2 Children
Education: PhD in Agricultural Science, Major in Crop Science
Isabela State University, Echague Main Campus
Professional: Licensed Agriculturist (No. 8241)
Civil Service Eligible (No. 147737)
Affiliation: DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute
Isabela Branch Station
College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18
Rizal Branch
Getting to Know the Class…

Your Turn…

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
Levelling Off..
Commodities
Physiology
Post-harvest practices and Technologies
Chemical
Cultural
Physical
Biological
Other interventions

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
 INTRODUCTION TO POST-
HARVEST HANDLING AND
SEED TECHNOLOGY
(CRSCI419-18)

ANDRES L. DELA CRUZ JR.

Instructor

College of Agriculture
Rizal Branch
Introduction

• Food Supply over population

-98% self-sufficient in 2012 (PSA,2015)
-82-85% Self-Sufficient 2016-2019 (PSA, 2020)
-110M Filipinos as of 2020 Survey
-2% growth rate
• Food Production relative to PH losses
-cumulatively, around 25% PH losses from grain crops
-50% for perishable products like fruits and vegies.

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
Chapter 1 Objectives:
By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain what is post harvest technology and its relationship with

other disciplines
2. Have a clearer understanding of post-harvest physiological
processes and mechanisms for their control
3. Describe how temperature and relative humidity management
are the most effective tool for extending the shelf life and
quality of fresh horticultural commodities.
4. Explain the procedure of controlling relative humidity and how
to apply them in post harvest management of horticultural
crops
5. Describe the basic principles of food safety assurance
6. Design measures to maintain or improve quality and reduce
postharvest losses

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
What is Post-Harvest Technology?

Constitute an inter-disciplinary science and

techniques applied to agricultural
commodities after harvest for the purpose
of preservation, conservation, quality
control/enhancement, processing,
packaging, storage, distribution, marketing
and utilization to meet the food and
nutritional requirements of consumers in
relation to their needs. (Sonam Tashi, ND)

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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What is Post-Harvest Handling?
Post-harvest management practices
that reduce product loss due to
spoilage or shrinkage, and will reduce
microbial risks w/in a period of time.
These include:
– Cleaning – Sorting
– Packaging – Quick cooling
– Good refrigerated storage

– Good transportation & distribution

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What is Seed Technology?

is the science dealing with the

methods of improving physical
and genetic characteristics of seed.
The various aspects coming under
seed technology are seed production,
seed processing, seed certification,
seed testing, seed storage, seed
biology, seed entomology, seed
pathology and seed marketing.

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What is Seed Technology?
Postharvest technology stimulates agricultural
production, prevents post-harvest losses, improves
nutrition and adds value to agricultural products
thereby opening new marketing opportunities and
generating new jobs while stimulating growth of
other related economic sectors.

The process of developing post-harvest

technologies requires an interdisciplinary and
multidimensional research approach, which
includes scientific creativity, technological
innovation, and commercial entrepreneurship and
stakeholder inputs.

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Importance of Post Harvest Technology

The purpose of post harvest processing is to

maintain or enhance quality of the products and
make it readily marketable
1. Proper handling, packaging, transportation and
storage reduces the post harvest losses of seed
crops as well as fruit and vegetables.

2. Processing and preservation technology helps to

save excess fruit and vegetable during the glut
season (off season). Seed crops like cereal’s
shelf life can be prolonged during lean months.

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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Importance of Post Harvest Technology

3. The technology has become a necessity to

improve the food safety and strengthen nations
food security.

4. The technology helps to boost export of

agricultural commodities in the form of
preserved and value added products.

5. Presently mango, pineapple, banana, coconut,

sugar cane are being processed on a large
scale. Special rice are exported to Japan,
Europe and USA.

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Post Harvest Technology Procedures
Temperature management procedures

1. Temperature management is the most effective tool for

extending the shelf life of grain crops like maize, rice,
pulses, oilseed crops and others, as well as fresh
horticultural commodities.

2. Too much heat from after harvest will affect grain

quality. It will cause spotting or grain fissures, especially
when abruptly removed. Grains crops intended for
grains should be gradually dried to maintain seed
viability and vigor.

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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Post Harvest Technology Procedures
Temperature management procedures
3. Cold storage facilities should be well engineered and
adequately equipped. This is still the best storage
technique to maintain seed vigoruosity and viability for
longer period of time.

4. Commodities should be stacked in cold rooms with

spaces between pallets and room walls to ensure good
air circulation. Storage rooms should not be loaded
beyond their limit for proper cooling. In monitoring
temperature, commodity temperature rather than room
temperature should be measured.

Seed Storage facility should range 35-40 degree F.

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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Post Harvest Technology Procedures
Control of relative humidity (RH)

• Relative humidity can influence water loss,

decay development, incidence of some
physiological disorders and uniformity of fruit
ripening.

• Proper relative humidity is 85-95% for fruits

and 90-98% for vegetables except dry onions
and pumpkins (70-75%). Some root vegetables
can be best held at 95-100% RH.

• Grains should be kept under RH range of less

than 40%

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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Post Harvest Technology Procedures
Control of relative humidity (RH)

For seeds storage, RH can be controlled by one or more

of the following procedures:
• Adding suction equipment in warehouse to
eliminate excess moisture in the ambient air
• Regulating air movement and ventilation in
relation to the produce load in the cold storage room.
• Adding polythene liners in containers and plastic films
for packaging.
•Providing pallets that will increase air circulation
beneath the files or in between

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 HARVEST & POSTHARVEST
PRACTICES FOR INBREDS
AND F1 HYBRIDS (AxR)

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 HARVESTING

THRESHING

SEED DRYING

CLEANING

STORAGE

Seed handling/processing
operations
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HARVESTING

Ultimate Goal:
to recover the rice grains from the field and
separate them from the rest of the crop
material, either for commercial
consumption or for seed purposes, in a
timely manner with minimum grain
loss while maintaining highest grain
quality.

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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 CONSIDERATIONS

• Timely manner
- consider maturity period of the variety
- 28-32 days from 50% flowering (Optimum time of harvesting, IRRI research)
- validate through visual maturity of the rice panicle

• Minimum grain loss

• Highest grain quality

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Before Harvest

Drain field
 10-14 days for heavy clay soils
 5-7 days for light soils

• To attain uniform
maturity/ripening
• To prevent wetting of the grain
during harvesting
• For easy operation in the field

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Harvesting
Indices for optimum harvesting

Harvest when 80-85% of the grains in the

main panicles are clear, firm and straw-
colored (for A line, 90%).

1 3 4 5
2

ripened

Harvest when seed moisture content is

at 20-24%
College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18
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 Harvesting F1 Hybrids -
BE EXTRA CAREFUL!

A-line
R-line

- seed mixture could happen

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Harvest the R-line first
- if possible, cut close to the ground
- Ensure that no cut panicles are
dropped and left on the ground
- Set aside harvested R-line in a safe
place, away from the A-line plots, for
threshing later

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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 After harvesting the R-line;
Before Harvesting the A-line
- Do further roguing
* check for R-lines left (lodged stalks, left
panicles, etc)
- Make sure the materials/tools/ equipment needed
in threshing, handling, and drying are properly
cleaned and made ready for use

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Harvesting
Manual harvesting Sequence

1. Cutting 2. Panicle Hauling

3. Piling 4. Threshing
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 Harvesting Machinery
PhilRice Rotary Reaper
- capacity up to 2 hectares/day
- powered by 6 hp gasoline engine
- easy to repair and maintain
- costs about 50% lower than imported reaper

Morallo Model Agad Model

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Harvesting Machinery
Rice Combine Harvester
- combines reaping, threshing,
cleaning and bagging in one
machine

Japanese Combine

Western Combine

Mini Combine
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 Harvesting Machinery
Stripper Harvester
- grains are stripped from the panicles leaving the straw still
anchored on the ground

- threshing must be done during harvesting operation

- capacity up to 1 hectare/day (clean grains) with 6-10 workers

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Updates on Crop Harvesting
HARVEST & POSTHARVEST OPERATIONS

 Time to harvest if 80-

85% of the grains are
already mature
 Thresh, clean, and dry
grains of different
moisture contents
separately
 Newly harvested palay
should be dried to 13-
14% moisture content
 Use clean threshers
and blowers

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Rizal Branch
Updates on Crop Harvesting
REAPING & THRESHING OPERATIONS

 Reciprocating cutter
bar or rotary disc
cutter
 1.5-2.0 ha of
windrowed rice crop
per day; 1 operator Rice reaper
and 6-8 persons for
gathering & piling
 Axial-flow thresher
 2 tons/h capacity

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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Updates on Crop Harvesting
COMBINED REAPING & THRESHING OPERATIONS

 Japanese head-feeding
(panicles) type rice
combine
 40-60 hp diesel engine
 1.0-2.0 ha/day
 One operator, 3-4
persons for hauling grain
in bags
 P6500/ha

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
Updates on Crop Harvesting
COMBINED REAPING & THRESHING OPERATIONS

 PhilRice-Briggs &
Stratton mini rice
combine
 0.7-1.0 ha/day
 16-hp gasoline engine
 1.3-meter and 1.7-m
width models
 P250,000-300,000/unit

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

Rizal Branch
Updates on Crop Harvesting
COMBINED REAPING & THRESHING OPERATIONS

 Western combines
 0.25-1.8 ha/h
 50-200 hp
 P1.5-4.0M/unit

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Threshing

• Threshing should be done simultaneously with

harvesting so that the harvested stalks/panicles
do not have to be piled for a long period

• If piling could not be avoided, it is a better

practice to create smaller piles in order to
attain better aeration and prevent heat
build up at the center of the pile which may
affect the quality of the seeds
• Threshing dripping wet palay using a
mechanical thresher should be avoided to
prevent poor grain cleaning and separation

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Threshing Machinery
Thresher must be properly
cleaned to prevent possible
contamination with seeds from
other varieties

Blower opening (shutters)

must be properly checked Axial flow thresher
and adjusted to give the
desired airflow needed for
winnowing

Observe recommended
threshing speed to prevent
grain damage

Pedal thresher
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Threshing
• The thresher should be stationed nearest to the pile
of harvested crops so as to minimize losses in
handling and feeding.

• For optimum cleaning performance, threshers

equipped with blowers and oscillating sieves should
be stationed on a level area during operation.
• During windy conditions, the thresher should be
positioned in such a way that straws are thrown in
the direction of the wind in order to eliminate
blowing the straw, chaff, and husk back towards the
operator and the threshed grain

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 Drying
 Seeds should be dried immediately after threshing.
-to maintain viability and vigor
-to avoid possible deterioration
-greater economic value

 MC should be brought down to 18% within 15 hours (for

hybrid) after harvesting (for inbred, within 24 hours)
 Dry up to 12% MC within 5 days from initial drying (for inbred,
13-14%, but 12% for longer period of storage)

 Observe recommended drying temperature

43 C maximum drying temperature

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Drying
Sundrying
2-4 cm

Make sure that the seeds are not exposed to

excessive heat during sun drying

- Use nets when drying on

concrete pavement

-Stir regularly (every 30 min. or

every hour

Safeguard against possible contamination

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Drying

Mechanical drying
- Make sure the dryer is
properly cleaned and free
from residual grains

- two kinds of dryers:

1. Flatbed
2. Recirculating

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 Drying
Mechanical Drying

Flatbed Dryer

Important factors to consider when operating a flatbed dryer

1. Grain depth
2. Static pressure
3. Drying temperature
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 Drying bin

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 Blower

Furnace

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Drying
Mechanical Drying Recirculating Dryer

dryer components
must be properly
cleaned

4-10 tons capacity/batch at 6-10 h drying time

Forced convection – centrifugal fan
40-80 C air temperature
Updates on Crop Drying
MECHANICAL DRYING OPERATIONS

 Maligaya 6-ton flatbed

dryer with rice husk
furnace

 PRPC 6-ton batch

recirculating dryer
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Cleaning
After drying, grains should be properly
cleaned in order to pass the seed
certification process

Affects storability of the seeds

Uncleaned seeds are more prone to deterioration

Machines currently being used:

1. grain cleaners
2. Others

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 Seed Cleaner

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Cleaning

F1 hybrid

Hybrid Rice Seed Cleaner

Inbred
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College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18
Rizal Branch
College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18
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Updates on Grain Cleaning
MECHANICAL CLEANING OPERATIONS
 PhilRice seed cleaner
for inbred and hybrid
seeds
 1 ton/h (150
cavans/day), 98%
purity
 6 hp gasoline engine
 P50,000/unit

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 Storage

Common commercial warehouse

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 Storage

Modern Industrial Silos

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Storage

At present, the availability of seeds does not

always match with the time they are needed
by the farmers

Ultimate goal: to preserve seed quality

Factors that influence the longevity of stored

seeds
- field conditions where the crop is grown
- drying conditions
- storage conditions

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Storage
Field conditions

Where, when and how a crop is

grown can affect seed storage life

Poor quality seed will lose its viability

even under ideal storage conditions

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Storage
Storage conditions

How the seeds are dried affects seed longevity

High seed MC causes losses in seed viability
and vigor

Seed harvested early, with a high MC

will generate heat if left in bulk

Too high temperature will kill the seed

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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Storage
Storage conditions

How the seeds are stored affects seed longevity

Most important factors:
- temperature
- relative humidity

Under ideal storage conditions, both RH

and temperature should be kept low

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Storage
Rules of thumb

On Moisture Content:
When seed MC is between 5 and14%, each
1% reduction in MC approximately doubles
seed storage life

On Temperature
When the storage temperature is between
0 C and 50 C, each 5 C decrease in
storage temperature approximately
doubles seed storage life

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Storage
Existing storage practices

Cold storage
Aircon + dehumidifier

Ambient

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Storage
Seed storage management
practices

- hygiene/sanitation
- regular inspection
- control for pest infestation
- fumigation
- seed treatment
- hermetic storage

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 End of Presentation

College of Agriculture CRSCI419-18

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