NEED AND METHODS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND REDUCE RICE LOSSES DURING RICE PRODUCTION IN MEKONG RIVER DELTA pptx

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NONG LAM UNIVERSITY












WORKSHOP


NEED AND METHODS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND
REDUCE RICE LOSSES DURING RICE PRODUCTION IN
MEKONG RIVER DELTA










CAN THO CITY, JUNE 2006

CONTENTS
Acknowledgement
The objectives of workshop
Introduction of CARD-06/VIE05 Project
(Dr Truong Vinh)
Summary
Description of project

PART 1. Common discussion on need and methods to improve quality and reduce losses
in rice production in Mekong River Delta (MRD)
Need and methods to improve quality and reduce losses in rice production in MRD
Dr Hoang Bac Quoc
Need and methods to improve quality and reduce losses in rice production in Soc Trang
Province
Tran Thi Phung Nga
Need and methods to improve quality and reduce losses in rice production in Tien Giang
Province
Tran Minh Tuan
The fact and solutions of mechanization of harvest and post-harvest methods in MRD
MPhil Tong Huu Thuan


PART 2. Presentation of techniques: harvesters, driers, and millers
Harvesters – from the view of manufacturers
Nguyen Dinh Ba
The development in rice processing industry in Mekong River Delta
Bui Phong Luu and Nguyen The Ha
Harvesting by combined harvester in Soc Trang Province
Duong Minh Hoang
Paddy harvesting mechanization of Soc Trang Province

Tran Thi Phung Nga
Drying Engineering in Mekong River Delta in the last and the next 15 years
Dr Phan Hieu Hien
Milling activities in Tien Giang Province
Tran Minh Tuan
The fact and solutions of mechanization in paddy harvesting in Ben Tre Province
Ben Tre Extension Center
The fact and solutions of mechanization in post harvesting in Hau Giang Province
Hau Giang Extension Center



OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP

Project “Investigation of rice kernel and its control in the field and during post harvest
processes in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam” is a part of Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural
Development Program (CARD) between Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MARD) and Australian Agency of International Development (AusAID). The
aim of this project is to help small Vietnamese household farmers to improve the rice quality
and price in order to raise their income level. The project will be implemented through some
selected cooperatives. Service providers and extension workers will also benefit from this
project by improving their knowledge and widening working opportunities.

The project will conduct some investigations in relation to controlling kernel cracking both in
the field and post-harvest operations in Mekong River Delta (MRD) in the next 3-year period,
from March 2006 to March 2009. The cracking is a cumulative effect of many factors, from
harvesting (cutting, threshing), drying to milling. Experiments and investigations will be
conducted in the field in order to evaluate the kernel cracking and losses due to harvesting
methods. The experiments will be on diverse rice varieties in different seasons. Current drying
systems in MRD will be studied and experimented to assess performance and efficiency of

drying process. The results from this project will be disseminated through extension officers
from provincial extension centres.

In order to achieve those objectives, the workshop “Need and methods to improve quality and
reduce rice losses in rice production in Mekong River Delta” was organized to discuss the
current circumstances and to highlight the needs of harvest and post-harvest technology in rice
production in MRD by professional and useful contribution of representatives from provincial
Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and extension centers, as well as from
producers. The workshop will highlight advantages and disadvantages of each technology and
development trends in the future. It will also figure out the relationship between the control of
rice kernel cracking and increase in rice quality and value. Organizing the workshop before
commencement of the project will help to summarize important concerns through experiences
of previous projects. Thus, this project will concentrate on more important and realistic
problems.

Dr Truong Vinh
HoChiMinh City University of Nong Lam
Coordinator of CARD-026/VIE05 Project

SUMMARY ON THE WORKSHOP

“Need and methods to improve the quality and reduce rice losses during rice production in
Mekong River Delta (MRD) “(Can Tho city, June 2006)

The workshop consisted two main parts, i.e., the common discussion on the need and methods
to improve the quality and reduce losses in rice production in the MRD and the technical
aspects on harvesting, drying and milling. For the common discussion, the reports of MRD
Rice Research Institute (MRD-RRI) and Post-harvest handling sub-component unit in MRD
(PHSCU) were representative for the regional level, and the reports of Soc Trang and Tien
Giang were representative for the provincial level. For the technical discussion, the harvesting,

drying and milling were prepared by Vinappro Company, Nong Lam University, and Bui van
Ngo Company, respectively. Other reports from provincial level such as Ben Tre, Hau Giang,
etc, were also involved.
According to MRD-RRI, there was about 500-600 reapers for the whole MRD. This number is
too small compared to the demand of mechanical harvesting, i.e., most of rice harvesting by
hand. The threshing has been mechanized over 95%. Manual cutting with mechanical
threshing required half day to complete a hectare resulted in 3-6% losses. The report of
PHSCU showed 10-15% total post-harvest losses. The farmers have been aware of the benefit
from mechanical drying over sun drying since 2002. However, the reason of high losses was
due to inappropriate drying procedures of the users. PHSCU proposed to build the specific
production areas with one or two rice varieties. They also proposed to establish a connection
between the farmers, industrial producers, scientists and the governors in order to improve the
quality of rice production. The Soc Trang extension center reported a total post-harvest loss of
13.38% for the year 2003. They calculated the demand for harvesters and dryers was 100 and
900 units, respectively, by the year 2010. They proposed to organize the chains from buying
the paddy to drying, milling and consuming at provincial level. The Tien Giang extension
center reported a 4.5% of losses due to harvesting. They said that harvesting in Tien Giang was
always late due to the lack of labors and harvesters. The mechanical drying contributed 25% of
the paddy drying. The milling got problems of uneven grain quality and old equipments. They
proposed to improve the farmers knowledge on rice cultivation related to appropriate post-
harvest technology. They also proposed the government to have a preferential policy on
finance for the farmers to invest the equipments for mechanization of rice production.
The Vinappro company commented on their experiences in developing process of the
combined harvesters. Most of the rice fields in the MRD have small size which are suitable for
medium and small scale harvesters. Soft soil base is another problem challenged the moving of
harvesters. The company has targeted to solve this problem by manufacturing a light harvester
and they have got some initial good results. The Bui van Ngo company focused on analysis of
milling technology. The energy consumption of current systems is about 35-38kWh for milling
1 ton of paddy. For standard rice condition, 8% of broken grain is the contribution of the whole
milling process. This means that a good paddy milled by a moderate quality milling plant can

have 60% head rice yield (HRY). In other words, a HRY below 60% is a result of either bad
milling machines or bad post-harvest handling of rice. They proposed to establish the milling
systems of MRD as large scale exported milling systems with capacity of 300 000 to 500 000
ton/year. In addition, milling cost can be reduced by using rice husk for energy as well as
producing ethanol from small broken rice kernels.
Nong Lam University reported the drying technology in MRD in the last and next 15 years.
Mechanical drying is clearly efficient but not enough to convince the farmers. The number of
the dryers has increased recently but still far from the demand. The government should control
strongly on the drying technology. The scientists and producers have to work harder to change
the mind of the farmers.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NONG LAM UNIVERSITY












WORKSHOP


SUMMARY OF ONE YEAR IMPLEMENTATION
OF CARD026/VIE05 PROJECT
DISCUSSIONS ON THE MODEL TO INCREASE

BENEFITS OF POOR FARMERS FROM THE
ADVANCES OF HARVEST AND POST HARVEST
TECHNOLOGIES


HOCHIMINH CITY, JUNE 2007
WORKSHOP PROGRAM
(15/06/2007)

7:30-8:00 Welcome section
8:00-8:05 Declaration the reason of workshop – Introduction the delegates, participants
8:05-8:15 Speech of the Board of Rector Dr Trinh Truong Giang
8:15-8:20 Introduction of workshop program Dr Truong Vinh
8:20-8:35 Report of harvesting time experiments BSc Tran Nguyen Ha Trang
8:40-8:55 Report of harvesting methods experiments MEng Tran Van Khanh
9:00-9:15 Report of drying experiments Dr Phan Hieu Hien
9:20-9:35 Report of milling experiments MEng Lam Thanh Hung
9:40-10:20 Discussion
10:25-10:45 Report of Tan Phat A cooperative -Kien Giang Its representative
10:50-11:05 Summary and development orientation Dr Truong Vinh
11:10-12:20 Speech of economists
11:30-12:20 Discussion
12:25-12:30 Closing (the discussion can be continued at 1:30pm if not finished in the
morning)
HoChiMinh City, June 15
th
2007
Coordinator
Dr Truong Vinh

SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP
“SUMMARY OF ONE YEAR IMPLEMENTATION OF CARD026/VIE05 PROJECT -
DISCUSSIONS ON THE MODEL TO INCREASE BENEFITS OF POOR FARMERS FROM
THE ADVANCES OF HARVEST AND POST HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES “

The workshop gathered participations, reports, and experiences from experts in this field of
Nong Lam University, Provincial Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development,
extension centers, and representatives of cooperatives in Mekong River Delta (MRD). The
reports of this workshop concentrated on the main topics of this project as well as the rice
production situation in MRD namely effects of harvesting time, harvesting methods, and
drying on losses of rice. The evaluation of current situation of milling and drying equipments
used in MRD was reported. Improvement of the drying performance of the flat-bed dryers and
their technical aspects were also discussed.

1. Effects of harvesting time
The experiments for this study were conducted in three locations namely Can Tho, Kien Giang,
and An Giang in diverse varieties at different seasons. The results from surveys generally
showed that most households did not harvest at optimum period of rice growing time (50-90%
farmers harvest late 1-3 days due to lack of labors). In addition, the experiments also
demonstrated that both harvesting time and variety affected rice quality indicated by kernel
cracking and head rice yield (HRY) factors. For most varieties, generally, harvesting after
Maturity Day (MD) (90 days for OM1490, OM2718, AG24 and 98 days for Jasmin variety)
had higher grain cracking and lower HRY compared to harvesting before MD. After MD, the
later harvesting time, the higher grain cracking was. The workshop also recommended farmers
cultivating the rice variety for low grain cracking such as AG24 and be careful in correct
harvesting time with high cracking variety such as OM1490, and suggested to disseminate
widely these results to the farmers through workshops, extension sections and trainings.
Furthermore, because of late harvesting due to labor shortage, organizing labors in each local,
mechanizing in harvesting activities were concerned in this workshop as well.
In conclusion, harvesting time is one of the most important factors controlling grain cracking

and HRY.

2. Effects of harvesting methods
Reports of experiments on harvesting methods demonstrated that manual harvesting was
currently the popular technique in all places. The report presented results of grain cracking and
HRY of different harvesting methods on some varieties, in Spring-Summer season (06/07) in
Can Tho and Long An. The outcomes of this experiment showed that harvesting by machine
gave higher HRY than that of manual harvesting. Moreover, mechanical harvesting was able to
shorten time for harvesting, which reduced the impacts of weather, as well as cracking due to
late harvesting (mentioned above). However, because of capital shortage, farmers could not
self-mechanize. Thus through this workshop, the project highlighted financial support for
equipping reapers and combined harvesters for cooperatives. Those equipments will be also
used in training and extension sections.

3. Shattering losses during harvest and threshing losses
Besides factors that affected losses above, losses due to threshing and field shattering were also
concerned in this workshop. The results showed that no matter what threshing method (manual
and mechanical) was, HRY would be declined. However, mechanical threshing gave better
result with higher HRY. In addition, another factor (despite not related to grain cracking),
shattering could cause loss. This loss was 1-4%. Result indicated that late harvesting could
increase shattering losses too. Moreover, harvesting by reapers and combined harvesters had
lower shattering losses compared to manual harvesting.
In conclusion, with benefits from different aspects, mechanical harvesting helps to reduce
losses. From this, one view gained from this workshop is that mechanization of harvesting is
the indispensable tendency for rice production development.

4. Effects of drying on grain cracking and HRY
Dry report presented preliminary results of this experiment, in which comparison the HRYs of
different drying methods, the HRYs of mechanical drying and traditional drying technique –
sun drying and field drying. Although inlet parameters of this experiment were not consistent,

HRYs of mechanical drying were 2.17-6.03% higher than that of sun drying. This result was
compatible with that of previous studies, in which field drying reduced HRY 8%. In general,
loss due to sun and field drying was about 8.7%. However, the workshop clarified that more
experiments need to be done in next seasons to accurately evaluate losses of sun drying and
benefits of mechanical drying, aiming to figure out suitable solutions.

5. Effects of milling on HRY
Information and data of milling practices in Tien Giang and Kien Giang were also reported in
this workshop. Most milling plants (more than 95%) were at small and medium scale. In fact,
levels of investment and equipments were not synchronous, that led to low rice quality. To be
detail, large milling plants provided much higher HRY compared to that of medium and small
ones (55% compared to 51%). Therefore, size of milling plant is also a factor reducing losses.
The workshop determined that in order to temporarily fix that situation, it is necessary to limit
the development of small plants and to multiply medium plants at each local. Moreover,
through extension programs and workshops like this, extension officers, milling owners, and
farmers are able to update information in this field aiming to enhance product quality.
6. Evaluation of total losses
Total losses for the whole harvest to post-harvest processes were presented. Draft values of 9-
19% losses were estimated where losses due to drying and harvesting method need to be
conducted more experiments for accurate evaluation. The workshop mentioned that by
improvement the rice production practices such as no field drying, on time harvesting, correct
drying application, etc, a reduction of 7% losses can be obtained. By taking only the paddy
produced in the Summer-Autumn of the MRD as 5 millions ton, this reduction of losses is
estimated to be equivalent to 60 million USD.