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POSTHARVEST HANDLING SYSTEMS OF TOMATO IN GHANA. A CASE STUDY IN NKONSIAH. Tomato is susceptible to handling damages. Produce that are affected are not easily seen or noticed. Tomato is handled several times and at each point there is the risk of damage, which has a possibility of reducing its shelf life. Appropriate handling is therefore needed to reduce the risk of various types of mishandling. The most important basic factor in post-harvest handling system must be noted. That is all harvested crops are living structures as they continue to perform their metabolic reactions and maintain the physiological systems that were present when they were attached to their parent plants. An important feature of a plant is that they respire by taking in carbon dioxide (CO2) and gives out oxygen (O2) and heat. Respiration and transpiration continue after harvest since the produce is removed from its normal sources of mineral, water, and photosynthate or assimilate. The produce is dependent entirely on its own food and moisture content (Agricultural Extension Handbook, 2006). On the other hand cereals, grains and legumes are harvested at the time when they have ceased taking up nutrients from the parent plant. Though they also respire and transpire, these occur at a slower rate. For this reason such crops are harvested dry as compared to perishable fruits and vegetables. Development and maturation of fruits are completed only when it is attached to the plant; but ripening and senescence may proceed on or off the plant. Some fruits and vegetables are harvested when ripe half-way. Similar technology may be applied to vegetables or any determinant organ except the ripening steps does not occur. Consequently it is more difficult to describe the change from maturation to senescence in vegetables. Vegetables are harvested over wide range of physiological ages, thus from the time well before the commencement of maturation through the commencement of senescence. The ripening of tomato undergoes many physico-chemical changes after harvest and before harvest. Ripening is a dramatic event in the life of a fruit. It transforms a physiologically matured and in edible plant organ in a visual attractive, olfactory and of development of a fruit and the commencement of senescence, this is normally an irreversible event. Some of the systems of post-harvest handling of fruits are as follows: harvesting, gathering, bulking, sorting, washing, grading and transporting.