Infrared Thermal Imaging: A Practical Educational Tool to Improve Smallholder Farmer Postharvest Practice in Fiji

Underhill, Steven J. R.; Zhou, Yuchan; Kumar, Salesh

doi:10.1080/10496505.2016.1275647

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…With most Fijian tomato value chains demonstrating poor postharvest temperature management, improving on-farm postharvest temperature practices should be a priority. Interventions based on avoiding excessive field heat due to prolonged in-field storage after harvest [35], combined with harvesting in the morning, would be likely to reduce on-farm tomato postharvest loss in Fiji significantly. However, a limited awareness of good postharvest temperature management amongst Fijian farmers is also likely to impede practice change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smallholder Farmer Perceptions of Postharvest Loss and Its Determinants in Fijian Tomato Value Chains

Kumar

Underhill

2019

Horticulturae

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The Fiji Islands, like many small Pacific island nations, are thought to incur high rates of postharvest loss. Little work has been undertaken to quantify the amount of loss within Pacific horticultural value chains, or identify the key determinants. This study sought to quantify postharvest loss within Fijian smallholder tomato value chains and to examine the relative importance of current on-farm practices as possible contributors to this loss. A semi-structured survey of 115 smallholder tomato farmers in Sigatoka Valley and eastern Viti Levu was undertaken, covering socio-economic and demographic parameters, production and postharvest handling practice, and postharvest loss based on farmer recall. On-farm postharvest loss for smallholder farmer tomato value chains was between 26.1% in Sigatoka Valley and 27.6% in eastern Viti Levu. This finding was consistent with quantification of postharvest loss in Fijian tomato chains by direct determination, but is relatively high when compared to smallholder tomato value chain loss in Sub-Saharan Africa. When Fijian tomato value chains were segregated according to specific postharvest handling practice, the contributors to postharvest loss were often associated with on-farm decision-making. Those value chains that only harvested once a week, or in the early morning (before 7 am) or mid-day onwards, stored harvest product in the field for more than three hours, did not sort or grade prior to on-farm ripening, or used packing sheds that had relatively open designs, all had consistently higher levels of postharvest loss. The prevalence of specific postharvest handling practice in both locations is further reported. While this study highlights the impact of current on-farm postharvest handling practices on tomato value chain loss, what remain unclear are the underlying drivers associated with current postharvest handling behaviour and the decision-making that shapes quality and logistic control activities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smallholder Farmer Perceptions of Postharvest Loss and Its Determinants in Fijian Tomato Value Chains

Kumar

Underhill

2019

Horticulturae

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“…Additionally, one of the digital literacy projects included mentoring Fijians to develop VL skills (Underhill et al, 2017). Author 2 investigated the VL skills of the Fiji Islanders, beginning with the students, and designed instructional modules (Reddy et al, 2020c(Reddy et al, , 2020d.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual literacy shown through a magnifying lens by high school students

Reddy

Sharma

Chaudhary

et al. 2022

ITSE

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate student visual literacy skills using the newly designed visual literacy framework and visual literacy (VL) scale. Design/methodology/approach It includes a newly designed framework, a self-reporting questionnaire and a scale to evaluate an individual's VL skills and overall competency. The self-reporting questionnaire consists of 13 items with a five-point Likert scale. Findings The newly developed VL skill scale assessed the Fiji students’ competency (i.e. identify, understand, evaluate and communicate using visuals). The mean for the 13 items on VL skills showed average results, but 46.33% recorded high visual literacy competencies. The multiple linear regression analysis outcomes showed all 13 skills demonstrated significant contributions to becoming visually literate. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this study is that the questionnaire is self-reporting, so the evaluation can be highly rated. The implications are that relevant stakeholders will be able to devise strategies and content to improve visual literacy in Fiji. Practical implications Images are playing an important role today, especially after COVID-19, which forced the education system to go online. Online learning involves a lot of visuals, and as such, visual literacy is important to students so that they can successfully learn online. This paper brings out the important aspects of visual literacy, which needs to be understood by the students. Social implications In society, everything involves visuals. This paper introduces a visual literacy scale and a visual literacy tool to measure the visual competencies of individuals. If people understand the components of visual literacy, then visual competencies of the people will also improve. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one on evaluating visual literacy competencies in Fiji and also in the South Pacific. The visual literacy tool is also new to the world.

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Infrared Thermal Imaging: A Practical Educational Tool to Improve Smallholder Farmer Postharvest Practice in Fiji

Cited by 2 publications

References 4 publications

Smallholder Farmer Perceptions of Postharvest Loss and Its Determinants in Fijian Tomato Value Chains

Smallholder Farmer Perceptions of Postharvest Loss and Its Determinants in Fijian Tomato Value Chains

Visual literacy shown through a magnifying lens by high school students

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