Assessment of fruit defects and economic loss of some soft date palm cultivars (phoenix dactylifera L.) in North Delta, Egypt

Abstract

This research was carried out to quantify the amount of defected fruits, outlining the causes of defect, and their negative economic impact, in terms of total fruit loss (US$), production cost (US$), total area of cropping land (hectare), and irrigation water (m3) of ‘Samani’, ‘Hayani’, ‘Bent Aisha’, ‘Oreebi’, and ‘Zaghloul’ soft date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars grown in North Delta, Egypt. Random fruit samples were taken at harvest date of each cultivar from Rasheed and Baltim districts and divided into two sets; sound fruit (free of visible defects) and defected/discarded fruit. The defected fruits set was classified based on the type of defect into; misshape, unpollinated fruit (shees), decay and mold, dirt, discolored, dry fruit, insect damage, over-ripped fruit, shrivelling, under size, unripe fruit, no calyx, and mechanical injuries. Each type of defect was calculated as a percentage of the total weight of the defected fruit. Fruit loss was determined as follow; ‘Hayani’ (19.66-26.77%), ‘Samani’ (23.03-25.33%), ‘Oreebi’ (16.79-25.00%), ‘Bent Aisha’ (9.66-15.68%) for 2015/2016-2016/2017 seasons respectively, ‘Zaghloul’ (5.55%) for 2016-2017. Total monetary loss based on the farm price was about 8,641,908-9,232,793 for the studied cultivars. Total loss in terms of cropping land was about 1,771-1,939 ha with a total loss of 1,511,616-1,654,890 in production cost and 11,2-12,3 million (m3) of the irrigation water. Fruit without calyx was the main defect of all the studied cultivars, except ‘Oreebi’ during both seasons.