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Quality control of crops and Factors Affecting Quality of Crops
Quality control of crops
Quality control of crops is the systematic approach toward achievement and or maintenance of their quality standards. Quality control integrates random and uncoordinated activities directed toward achievement and maintenance of quality standards into a comprehensive and systematic programme. It does not permit vital operations or procedures to be accomplished or ignored by chance.
The quality of crop produced is as important as the quantity produced, or more important than that. For example, it is desirable to produce fine rice with pleasant aroma, wheat with high milling quality, maize with a high percentage of marketable grain to stalk, cotton with long fibres, groundnut with low percentage of hull, sugarcane with high sucrose, potatoes with good cooking quality etc.
Factors Affecting Quality of Crops
Some time it is very difficult to separate out the quantity and quality factors of the crop produces. Some time it is possible to do that and sometime they are inseparable. With this context quality factors of crops are stated below-
1. Climatic factors:
a. Precipitation
b. Temperature
c. Humidity
d. Solar radiation
e. Location of the crop area:
i. Latitude
ii. Longitude
iii. Altitude
f. Wind velocity
g. Natural disaster (flood, cyclone, storm surge, untimely rainfall, hails etc.)
2. Edaphic factors:
a. Land type
b. Soil type:
i. Soil texture
ii. Soil structure
iii. Moisture holding capacity of soils
c. Soil organic matter
d. Soil pH
e. Soil microorganism
f. Soil nutrient
g. Soil temperature
h. Soil salinity and alkalinity
3. Biological factors:
a. Crop/variety
b. Pests/Parasites:
i. Weed
ii. Insect
iii. Nematode
iv. Disease organisms (Bacteria. fungi, virus etc)
v. Rodent
4. Cultural factors:
a. Preparatory land tillage
b. Selection of crop/variety
c. Time of sowing/planting/transplanting
d. Density of seeding/transplanting e. Isolation distance
f. Balanced fertilization
g. Planting materials
h. Plant population/plant stand:
i. Row to row spacing
ii. Plant to plant spacing
iii. Plant population per m2
i. Intercultural operations:
i. Weeding
ii. Water management (Irrigation & Drainage)
iii. Mulching
iv. Thinning & Gap filling
v. Earthing up
vi. Rouging
vii. Pesticide application
viii. Pruning
ix. Tying
x. De-suckering
xi. De-topping
j. Harvesting:
i. Sunny day
ii. Avoid injury
k. Post-harvest operations:
i. Threshing
ii. Drying
iii. Cleaning
iv. Grading
v. Storing
I. Insect pest and disease control
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