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Beside staple crops, the fruits and vegetables subsector contribute significantly to domestic and export markets. Yet, this subsector faces a number of challenges that limits its full growth potential. Through 383 randomly selected farmers' interviews in selected districts, the study revealed profound information on the vegetable value chain. Findings show that, there is fair participation of men (58%) and women (42%) in vegetable production. Majority of farmers were between 19 and 49 years old (70%), attained primary education (80%) and had more than 5 years in commercial vegetable production (71.8%). Further, 79.4% of farmers had less than 1 ha of vegetable farmland. Farmers cultivate a wide range of nutritious and commercially valued vegetables including broccoli (50.7%), cauliflower (37.3%), white cabbage (34.7%), crisphead lettuce (24.5%), Chinese cabbage (20.6%), zucchini (20.1%), carrot (18.5%), tomato (14.4%), purple cabbage (10.2%), beetroot (9.4%), African nightshade (8.4%), leaf lettuce (7.6%), green/snap bean (6.8%), snow/sugar-snap pea (5%), leeks (5%), spinach (4.2%), green pepper (4.2%), herbs (parsley, fennel and dill) (4.2%) and celery (2.9%). However, sustainable marketing of fresh vegetables is a challenge leading to most farmers opting to wholesale their produce at the farm gate (70.5%) instead of the marketplace, with the price often being set by the wholesale buyers (78.1%). With the exception of gender, household size, and farming experience; a farmer's location and primary education level had a slightly statistically significant (p = 0.044) influence on opting to use farmgate as the point of sales. The unpredictable market (100%), costly and low-quality inputs (36.4%), pests and diseases (35.2%), and shortage of cold storage facilities (22.9%) were claimed to hamper vegetable production and the producers. In general, vegetables subsector can grow significantly in Tanzania due to the availability of irrigated nutrient-rich land, favorable climate and productive workforce. Thus, good farming practices, marketing and cold chain facilities have the potential to reduce postharvest losses and help realize national sustainable development goals. Key words: Fresh vegetables, postharvest practices, marketing, constraints, cold chains, INTRODUCTION The agricultural sector contributes significantly to the national economy of Tanzania. The sector contributed 26.9% of the National GDP during the year 2020, whereby 15.4% of GDP contribution was [...]

In this paper a modelling and simulation of an absorption solar cooling system is presented. The system is modelled with the TRNSYS simulation program and the typical meteorological year file containing the weather parameters of Nicosia, Cyprus. Initially a system optimisation is carried out in order to select the appropriate type of collector, the optimum size of storage tank, the optimum collector slope and area, and the optimum thermostat setting of the auxiliary boiler. The final optimised system consists of a 15-[m.sup.2] compound parabolic collector tilted 30 [degrees] from the horizontal and a 600-1 hot water storage tank. The collector area is determined by performing the life cycle analysis of the system. The optimum solar system selected gives life cycle savings of C1376 [pounds sterling] when a nonsubsidized fuel cost is considered. The system operates with maximum performance when the auxiliary boiler thermostat is set at 87 [degrees] C. The system long-term integrated performance shows that 84,240 MJ required for cooling and 41,263 MJ for hot water production are supplied with solar energy. [C] 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.