Assessment of harvesting and post-harvest handling practices on organically grown cloves and black pepper in Tawa Ward, Morogoro

Abstract

Post-harvest management of spices is crucial in minimizing losses and upholding quality and safety along the value chain. This study assessed harvesting and post-harvest handling practices of clove and black pepper organically grown in Tawa Ward, Morogoro; to establish the quality compromising stages. A total of 107 clove and black pepper farmers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire to assess harvesting, drying and storage practices. Thirty-four spice samples from 34-randomly selected farmers were collected in airtight bags for moisture content determination. Data were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 20. Farmers in this study practice mixed farming, and handpicking harvesting to manageable amounts of spices (<100 kg/year). Spice drying is done on the ground by 80% of the farmers. Poor storage methods, mixing spice batches and attempts to treat spoiled spices were noticed as critical points that could compromise final quality. More than 46% of black pepper farmers acknowledged post-storage treatment of spoiled and contaminated spices including rubbing spices with cooking-oil and blanching. Such treatments along with higher moisture contents were related to farmers’ unawareness on post-harvest management. Moisture content of the final dried spices ranged from 23.9-14.8 (clove) and 13.8-10.1 (black pepper) indicating that farmers are struggling to achieve the recommended moisture content of 12% as per TZS 357:2012 and TZS 30:2013. This study calls for interventions of improving farmer’s knowledge and making use of simple but effective methods; like drying of spices on raised platforms and use moisture meter to determine the final level of dryness.