Management of Iceberg Lettuce Quality

In this study, an attempt has been made to understand the quality deterioration of iceberg lettuce during its supply chain i.e. during the pre-harvesting, harvesting and post-harvesting period. Further, it was tried to identify the cost of cultivation of iceberg lettuce per hectare and the crop rotation followed by the farmers. The Nilgiris District of the Tamilnadu state was the study area for this research. For this study, 30 farmers were selected for data collection based on convenience sampling. From these farmers during the pre-harvesting, harvesting and post-harvesting period every 10 samples of iceberg lettuce heads were taken for inspection and observations were recorded during quality inspection. From the study, it was found that the major part of the quality deterioration takes place during the post-harvest period. This paper focused on the comparison of the quality parameters done before dispatch and after, the knowledge of iceberg lettuce growing farmers. It was identified for the chemical application the spraying techniques used for the growing of iceberg lettuce. These current practices of farmers for the chemical application and spraying techniques are compared with the standard practices to identify the loopholes in the current practices of the farmers. It was found that the total cost of cultivation was 66495 rupees/acre.