The current study was carried out to evaluate the effect of hot water treatments and storage period on quality attributes of banana in the laboratory of Farm Structures, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, Pakistan during 2017. Green matured Basari banana fruit free from defects was collected from local fruit market. The samples of banana fruit were dipped for 10 minutes in four different water treatments i.e. control (T1), 40°C (T2), 50°C (T3) and 60°C (T4). The quality attributes of stored banana fruits was observed at initial time of storage and at an interval of five days. The results demonstrated a significant (p≤0.05) effect of hot water treatments and storage period on banana's quality parameters. Highest values for moisture content (%), pulp firmness (N), pulp to peel ratio, titratable acidity (%) and ash content (%) were observed under T3 followed by T2, T1 and T4, whereas least values for total soluble solids (% brix), pulp pH, total sugar content (%), decay incidence (%) and weight loss (%) were observed for T3 followed by T2, T1 and T4. It was also observed that all quality attributes except moisture content, pulp firmness, titratable acidity and ash content increased with increasing storage period. The conducted study concluded that treatment T3 provided better results, maintaining better quality with minimum losses.

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A study was carried out in Mirpurkhas District of Sindh Province during the year 2015-16, aiming to observe post-harvest losses of onions associated with the cultivators. Following the random sampling 60 respondents were selected from 12 villages of 06 Talukas in the District. Interviews were conducted for the collection of data. Problems expressed were as; high cost of fertilizers (93.33%), high cost of pesticides (93.33%), hand weeding is labour consuming and expensive (91.66%), labour problems during harvesting (85%), ineffective and costly weedicides (80%), lack of knowledge about recommended fertilizers doses for onion crop (80%) and lack of knowledge about improved varieties (68.33%). The problems in marketing of onion include lack of remunerative price (96.66%), fluctuation in market price (93.33%) and high charges of transportation (20%). The present study suggested that training/ awareness programs should be conducted for cultivators regarding establishing technical storage and handling onion problems.

Harvest losses (10-30%) in wheat represent 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, the 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. The 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 heads 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 reducing the harvesting and threshing losses and therefore, the study suggested that necessary steps of mechanized operation may be taken for minimizing the losses.