INFLUÊNCIA DA COLHEITA MECANIZADA NA QUALIDADE DO TOMATE AO LONGO DO PERÍODO DE COLHEITA

Abstract

In the year 2024, the average productivity of tomato plants in the state of Goiás was 93.423 tons per hectare, making it the state with the highest average productivity in Brazil. The objective of this study was to quantify and qualify the losses caused by the mechanized harvesting process of tomato fruits. The study was conducted in the rural area of the municipality of Morrinhos – GO in an area cultivated under center pivot irrigation. The evaluation was carried out on two harvesters of the Guaresi brand, with a randomized block design, using a factorial scheme of 2x4x7. Four periods during the harvest of the 2024 crop were assessed, with 7 repetitions in each period for fruit collection to be subjected to qualitative analyses: firmness, sphericity, volume, surface area, percentage of fresh mass loss. For the quantitative analyses, 7 plot launches were carried out. Each plot used for sample collection for quantitative analyses had a length of 50 m and a width of 1.8 m (an area of 90 m²). It was concluded that there is variation in the qualitative parameters over time and among fruits harvested by different machines. In terms of quantitative losses, the harvester factor (in isolation) did not influence the losses, but the factor of time and the interaction between times and harvesters do influence these losses. This reveals that the state of conservation and maintenance of the machines can increase or reduce quantitative losses.