The effect of crop losses during pre-harvest and harvest periods on production costs in tomato production in the Ayaş and Nallihan districts of Ankara province

The aim of this research was to analyze the impact on unit crop cost of crop losses that occur during the pre-harvest and harvest periods. It is understood today that crop losses occurring during these periods have an impact on crop cost and a negative effect on profit. The Ayaş and Nallihan districts of Ankara province, where tomato production is carrie out intensively,were selected as the research areas. Dwarf tomatoes are grown in the Ayaş district and indeterminate tomatoes in the Nallihan district. A sample size of 74 for Ayaş and 34 for Nallihan was calculated using a simple random sampling method. The production cost per kilo was $0.09 and $0.12, respectively, for these research areas. The gross margin and net profit per unit area were higher in Ayaş than in Nallihan. A higher crop loss was seen in Ayaş (14.78%) compared to Nallihan(12.76%) with respect to the seedling production period, as a fraction of all crop losses that include the pre-harvest and harvest periods. The crop losses during the production period in the field were 5.99% in Ayaş and 4.92% in Nallihan. For the harvest period, crop losses were 5.15% in Ayaş and 9,83% in Nallihan. Accounting for crop losses, per kilogram cost to produce tomatoes was $0.06 for Ayaş and $0.09 for Nallihan © TÜBİTAK.