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CIGR Handbook of Agricultural Engineering, Volume III Plant Production Engineering, Chapter 1 Machines for Crop Production, 1.6. Harvesters and Threshers, Part 1.6.13-1.6.18 Harvesters and Threshers: Fruits and Vegetables

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  CIGR Handbook of Agricultural Engineering, Volume III Plant Production Engineering, Chapter 1 Machines for Crop Production, 1.6. Harvesters and Threshers, Part 1.6.13-1.6.18 Harvesters and Threshers: Fruits and Vegetables, pp. 408-431  .(doi:10.13031/2013.36350)
Authors:   M. Ruiz-Altisent, J. Ortiz-Canavate
Keywords:   Keywords: 1.6.13. Introduction, 1.6.14. Harvesting Functions, 1.6.15. Principles and Devices for the Detachment, 1.6.16. Complementary Operations, 1.6.17. Mechanical Aids to Manual Harvest, 1.6.18. Electronic Sensors and Robotic Harvesting

First paragraph: Fruits and vegetables have a high importance in world food production and human nutrition and health.Mechanical harvest of fruits and vegetables shows special problems like: Products to be harvested are enormously variable regarding agronomic, physiological, structural characteristics, size and shape, detachment, etc. Harvesting machines have to be very specialized and they are used a low number of hours in a year. Fruits and vegetables have been, and still are, harvested manually even in highly developed countries, so that labor problems usually appear when trying to introduce mechanization with the aims of improving economy and quality. Factors regarding adequate varieties, planting systems and scheduling, soil and irrigation management, materials handling, grading and sorting, processing, and others, which in themselves need considerable know-how and technification, impose strict conditions on the viability of mechanical harvest of any fruit or vegetable species.

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