Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) harvest and postharvest handling practices used by smallholder farmers in Morogoro district, Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to collect baseline information on the socio-economic factors, harvesting, and postharvest handling practices among smallholder pepper farmers in Morogoro district, Tanzania. Understanding these practices is vital for developing appropriate harvest and postharvest handling techniques, but less is known about the harvesting and postharvest handling practices used by small-scale farmers in the district. The study was carried out in 10 villages of 5 wards in the Mkuyuni and Matombo divisions, using a mix of semi-structured questionnaires, key informant interviews (KI), and focus group discussions (FGD). The gathered data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 25 (SPSS, Inc, USA, IL, USA). The results revealed that a majority (86.6%) of farmers harvested pepper when at least one berry on a spike turned red, indicating that farmers primarily rely on the visual ripeness of the peppercorns for harvesting. Regarding postharvest handling, 86.2% of farmers reported drying their peppercorns under the sun on mats, a common practice for removing moisture. For storage, nearly all respondents (98.6%) stored their dried pepper in polypropylene bags, which is standard practice in the region. However, the study also identified significant postharvest losses due to mould growth, with 95.75% of farmers citing it as the primary cause of deterioration in stored pepper. These findings highlight the need for further studies to optimize drying and storage techniques to reduce mould growth and minimize postharvest losses. Implementing improved postharvest management strategies could enhance the quality and marketability of pepper, eventually benefiting smallholder farmers in Morogoro district. This study underlines the importance of context-specific solutions to improve the postharvest handling of pepper and reduce economic losses.