Paddy Industry Research Articles

Techno-economic Analysis Conversion of Empty and Partially Filled Paddy Grain Waste into Glucose through Bioconversion Route

Waste generated from Malaysia’s paddy milling factories, known as empty and partially filled paddy grain (EPFG), has been improperly managed as it can be further utilized for sustainable resources such as feedstock via biorefinery. However, the critical driver for a biorefinery is whether the proposed design is profitable. In this study, the conversion of EPFG into glucose as an alternative to sustainable management was analysed in terms of their economic performance as feedstock. The process design involved the production of non-concentrated glucose from EPFG using hydrothermal pre-treatment and enzymatic process, which led to the 76% conversion yield. The economic performance for the plant is at 1.04 million USD, 46.9%, and 34.3% for net present value (NPV), return on investment (ROI), and internal rate return (IRR), respectively. The minimum sugar selling price (MSSP), when zero NPV, is at 0.42 $/kg when the co-product revenue is considered. Sensitivity analysis results indicate that the MSSP is highly sensitive to plant size. This economic evaluation serves as an introductory guide to assess the economic performance of paddy milling waste to glucose via enzymatic hydrolysis. The results of the present study could provide insight for the Malaysian paddy industry in managing the EPFG, hence increasing their market potential.

Research Trends on Rice Paddy Agriculture: A Bibliometric Analysis

As an important commodity, rice paddy is a vital agricultural resource for the nation’s food security. Rice paddy has been the central focus of Malaysia’s rice self-sufficiency agenda as the paddy industry has a significant role in creating food self-sufficiency, job opportunities, and increasing people’s income; hence, it has been extensively studied. To reveal the research situation pertaining to rice paddy agriculture objectively, this paper utilized the bibliometric method to analyze the trends and research features in rice paddy farming over the past 100 years from the Scopus database. Basic characteristics of literature, the research power of the research area, and the most researched topics that have been studied with the greatest frequency and are currently attracting the most attention are observed in this paper. The results show that research on rice paddy agriculture has rapidly emerged since the 1990s, with a significant increase in the total of citations received by publications. The top research subject categories are namely: Agriculture and Biological Sciences; Environmental Science; and Social Sciences, while the top preferred journals for publications in the field of rice paddy agriculture are Sustainability Switzerland; Field Crops Research; and Indian Journal of Agriculture Sciences. The study has significant implications for scholars, decision-makers, and practitioners in rice paddy agriculture, providing a comprehensive overview of existing publications and identifying key areas for future investigation.

Does Demographic Backgrounds Affect Agricultural Drone Technology in Granary Areas?

The adoption of technology in paddy sector appears to have coincided with the advancement of the country’s development, as the agricultural sector is likewise undergoing the Industrial Revolution 4. Over the years, the Malaysian rice production system has faced a number of challenges, including extreme weather conditions, poor soil fertility and nutrient management, farmers’ lack of awareness and knowledge, reluctance to use genetically modified planting materials, and poor technology deployment. Despite the adoption of drone in the paddy farming is seem gradually increasing, the factor effecting the adoption remains unclear. Thus, this study investigates the association between socio-demographic profiles and their adoption towards drone technology in selected granary areas. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 384 paddy farmers using a self-administered questionnaire, selected through cluster random sampling. Result found that there are no association between age, education level, experience, farm size and income. The finding recommend that government should provide opportunities for all paddy farmers regardless their background in adopting drone technology to improve the modernization in paddy industry.

Environmental impact assessment of rice mill waste valorisation to glucose through biorefinery platform

Environmental impact assessment of glucose production from paddy milling waste, known as empty and partially filled paddy grain (EPFG) in Malaysia, was performed using life cycle assessment (LCA). Three scenarios were conducted based on system expansion of the process. The LCA was conducted using ReCiPe methodology at midpoint and endpoint levels. The results indicate that enzymatic hydrolysis phase is the hotspot in the conversion system due to enzyme production. In addition, the agriculture phase also contributed to negative impacts, especially towards climate change. An improved environmental load was observed in scenario 2 when all EPFG fractionation was utilised to replace fossil-based electricity. Sensitivity analysis showed an increase in glucose yield leads to reduced environmental impact. Thus, the LCA study suggests that the conversion process of EPFG could further benefit and improve the paddy industry waste management with low impact contribution to the environment compared to other feedstock used for glucose production.

Rice and paddy industry in Malaysia: governance and policies, research trends, technology adoption and resilience

Rice is an important staple food for nearly half the world’s population. In Malaysia, rice and paddy cultivation kickstarted in the early 60s with small-scale farming, which later expanded by leaps and bounds before emerging as the country’s utmost important food crop. Over the decades, Malaysian rice production system has been suffering from various challenges which include extreme weather conditions, poor soil fertility and nutrient management, farmers’ lack of awareness and knowledge, hesitancy against genetically-modified planting materials and poor deployment of technology. The national rice production and consumption, simply measured as self-sufficiency status staggers in between 67 and 70%. The Southeast Asia region has been an important rice export trader with Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, among the biggest rice-producing nations. Food security, under the context of sustaining international rice trading ties, succumbs to functional fluctuations of global supply chains. During the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the containment period during the outbreak led to significant disruptions to the food production chain. During the early phase of the pandemic, Malaysia experienced a volatile rice import trend, facing difficulty to secure a committed rice trading partner. In this review, we discuss the trajectory of the rice and paddy industry in Malaysia since its inception, lab-to-field translated breeding strategies adopted for rice yield improvement, governmental participation and contribution (approaches, policies and programs) and technologies in use for rice production. Further, relevant cutting-edge technologies, agricultural methods and practices catered for modern Malaysian rice farming, with opportunities to improve and enhance crop health and resilience are included. The review findings inform new rice agricultural practices, suggest research directions toward sustainable rice farming and provide a comprehensive knowledge base to accelerate innovation, technology diffusion and technology adoption for a resilient rice production system in Malaysia.

AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION TECHNOLOGY TOOLS IN PADDY FIELD IN SEKINCHAN SELANGOR

Rapid development of technology has encouraged the use of agricultural mechanization technology in agriculture sector. The effective adoption of mechanization technology is important to improve management capacity and productivity among farmers. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the usage of mechanization technology tool among farmers, explore the acceptance of mechanization technology and investigate influencing factors and risk of using mechanization technology tools among farmers in paddy industry. In this qualitative research, semi-structured interview was conduct with 3 farmers in Sekinchan. The finding of this study show the high usage of mechanization technology tools in paddy cultivation process. The finding also found that factor influence the use of mechanization technology which including factor from high cost of maintenance and modification, land consolidation system, advanced services, facility and infrastructure and human capital factor. The results show that an effective use of mechanization technology by farmers in Sekinchan. Government should actively give an effort to strengthen the functioning of mechanization technology to help achieving the goal of domestic rice supply.

Green synthesis and characterization of UKMRC-8 rice husk-derived mesoporous silica nanoparticle for agricultural application

Agriculture plays a crucial role in safeguarding food security, more so as the world population increases gradually. A productive agricultural system is supported by seed, soil, fertiliser and good management practices. Food productivity directly correlates to the generation of solid wastes and utilization of agrochemicals, both of which negatively impact the environment. The rice and paddy industry significantly adds to the growing menace of waste management. In low and middle-income countries, rice husk (RH) is an underutilized agro-waste discarded in landfills or burned in-situ. RH holds enormous potential in the development of value-added nanomaterials for agricultural applications. In this study, a simple and inexpensive sol–gel method is described to extract mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) from UKMRC8 RH using the bottom-up approach. RHs treated with hydrochloric acid were calcinated to obtain rice husk ash (RHA) with high silica purity (> 98% wt), as determined by the X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF). Calcination at 650 °C for four hours in a box furnace yielded RHA that was devoid of metal impurities and organic matter. The X-ray diffraction pattern showed a broad peak at 2θ≈20–22 °C and was free from any other sharp peaks, indicating the amorphous property of the RHA. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) showed clusters of spherically shaped uniform aggregates of silica nanoparticles (NPs) while transmission electron microscopy analysis indicated an average particle size of < 20 nm. Besides Energy Dispersive X-Ray which validated the chemical constituent of the silica NPs, the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra showed peaks at 796.4 cm−1 and 1052 cm−1 corresponding to O–Si–O symmetric stretching vibration and O–Si–O asymmetric stretching, respectively. The Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) analysis indicated an average pore size = 8.5 nm while the specific surface area and the pore volume were 300.2015 m2/g and 0.659078 cm3/g, respectively. In conclusion, agrowaste-derived MSN was synthesized using a simple and economical sol–gel method without the addition of surfactant reagents for controlled formation at the structural level. Owing to the MSNs’ excellent physical properties, the method established herein, could be used singly (without any modifications) for the functionalization of a myriad of agrochemicals.

Development of life cycle inventory and greenhouse gas emissions from damaged paddy grain as fermentation feedstock: A case study in Malaysia

Glucose is an intermediate substance of various bio-based products in a biorefinery concept. A sustainable processing of biomass into glucose could provide alternative for managing waste of the paddy industry. A detailed model of glucose production life cycle inventory from the waste of the paddy industry, and evaluation of potential greenhouse gas was conducted from a cradle-to-gate approach in Malaysia. The foreground data for cultivation and milling of EPFG was based on real production data, while glucose production was based on laboratory study. The inventory highlighted the areas where the processing system would have the largest impact on raw materials, energy consumption, and emissions. This life cycle GHG quantifies the main hotspot for glucose production from paddy waste with agriculture at 74.6% and purification process at 5.3%, thus indicating a significant impact on the systems. The overall GHG impact of glucose production in mass allocation procedure produces 1.2 t CO2eq/t glucose. Finally, based on the comparison analysis results, converting paddy processing waste into glucose may be considered as an alternative for managing waste from paddy supply chain as the total emissions are within the second-generation feedstock biorefinery.

Design, Development and Performance Evaluation of a Seed Paddy Cleaning Machine

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food crop in Sri Lanka occupying 34% of the total cultivated area. Seed paddy production is one of the major economic activities in the paddy sector, which is fully mechanized only at the large-scale level. Unavailability of an affordable mechanical solution is a big barrier for entering small and medium scale producers in to the seed paddy industry. Therefore, the aim of this study was to introduce an efficient and affordable electrical motor driven small or medium scale paddy cleaning machine for seed paddy production. The main components of the machine are paddy sieving unit, blowing unit and stone separator. According to the variety of paddy, the sieve size of the sieving unit can be changed. The performance of the machine was evaluated using paddy samples with purposely added light and heavy impurities such as straw particles and different sized stones. The suitable speeds for the better operation of sieve, separator and blower were 90, 200 and 960 rpm, respectively. The separation percentages of the large, light, and same size impurities were 96%, 74%, and 86%, respectively. The effective capacity of the machine was 252 kgh-1 with 79% mechanical efficiency. Based on the overall satisfactory performance, the newly built paddy cleaning machine can be recommended to small and medium scale paddy farmers in Sri Lanka. The machine can be further developed with a magnetic separator for removing iron particles.

How COVID 19 effect Malaysian paddy industry? Adoption of green fertilizer a potential resolution.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in more than 4.3 million confirmed cases and more than 2,90,000 deaths worldwide. It has also given rise to fears of an imminent economic crisis and recession. Social distance, self-isolation, and travel restrictions have led to a reduction in the workforce across all economical sectors and have led to a loss of many jobs. Schools have closed down, and the need for commodities and manufactured goods has decreased. On the other hand, the need for medical supplies has increased significantly. The food sector is also facing increased demand as a result of panic buying and storing food products. In response to this global outbreak, we summarize the socioeconomic effects of COVID-19 on the various aspects of the world economy. In Malaysia, the COVID-19 epidemic has checked the resilience of the agriculture sector. Especially the Malaysian paddy industry as country imports 30% of its overall consumption from different parts of the world. The real price of rice triplicating for the consumers, which was alarming for nations in this pandemic situation. The Government of Malaysia introduced the National Agrofood Policy 2011–2020 (NAP4) in 2010 as a guidance document for the implementation of agricultural sector development programs and projects in Malaysia. The NAP4 ‘s 10-year term is to be finished by the end of 2020. Several sectors demonstrate substantial success after approximately 8 years of introduction, while the other classes often lag behind the goal and progress quite slowly. Agricultural sector performance is affected by many problems and challenges. In acknowledgment of the poor success of this field, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Based Industry has launched new approaches, policies, and programs that can change the agricultural sector more rapidly. The new direction is aimed at ensuring national food security and boosting farm and revenues. The authorized government agency needs to revise the policy formulation where Malaysia needs to set stages to revolutionize and modernize the rice farming to address the problem faced by the paddy sector in this pandemic situation to adopt GF. In this study, the researcher focuses on the improvisation of the policy to increase the paddy production sustainably.

Paddy Supply Chain: A Case of Paddy Industry in Kelantan

The production of paddy and the supply of rice to the consumers should not be viewed as separate segments but as a series of linked segments within a supply chain model. It involved of both upstream and downstream linkages. Each linkage has different processes and activities that produce different value and form of products and services before it reaches to the final customer or consumer. The paddy supply chain in Kelantan starts with the paddy producers (farmers), to the rice millers, then to the traders who will hand it to the wholesale traders, and lastly to the final consumers. A strong linkage between actors in every stage of supply chain can guarantee a competitive production and efficient distribution of paddy and rice from farmers to the final consumers.

Waste to Energy Production from Agricultural Waste of Paddy (Oryza Sativa) Industry in Malaysia: Life Cycle Cost Exploration

Due to rapid expansion in road transportation, a more environmentally benign fuel is required in order to control the air pollution. More competent and feasible development of the transportation sector has attracted many interests from various countries including Malaysia. Ethanol fuel is cleaner and sustainable compared to gasoline fuel. Although first generation bioethanol has been utilized globally, it raised the concern about food versus fuel issues. The solution for this is by utilizing agricultural waste as feedstock for bioethanol production. Therefore, this paper investigated the rice straw bioethanol production and its effect on economy and environment when rice straw bioethanol is utilized as a gasoline substitute in Malaysia. Approximately 6% of total gasoline consumption could be saved if rice straw is utilized for bioethanol production, while reducing 92% of air pollution. Based on the life cycle cost model, it was found that the total production cost for 50 ML rice straw bioethanol production plant with a lifetime of 20 years amounts to nearly 200 million USD, which the unit production cost is 0.16 USD per liter of bioethanol, which is Lower than the gasoline price. Therefore, Malaysia should consider bioethanol as a potential alternative fuel to address the problem of depleting fossil sources and global warming.

Leading key players and support system in Malaysian paddy production chain

This study aims to investigate the contribution of leading key players for maintaining and increasing the quality of paddy industry in Malaysia. The Ministry of Agriculture and Argo-based Industry ...

The impact of world crude oil price on the liberalisation of Malaysia’s paddy industry

Abstract Malaysia has adopted an open economy policy to boost its economic growth and per capita income. As a small and open economy, the country is susceptible to external shocks such as the 2008 financial crisis. Moreover, the increase in the international food price and the shortage of food in early 2008 imposed a new challenge to the national paddy sector. Besides, the increase in average world crude oil prices from USD 69.08 per barrel in 2007 to USD 101.56 per barrel in 2009 saw accompanied escalation in world food commodity prices, resulting in increases in input costs and hence the cost for food production. This paper examines the impact of the world crude oil price on the liberalisation of Malaysia’s paddy industry using system dynamics analysis. The two types of inputs impacted by crude oil price are fuel and fertiliser price. The results showed that 120 litre per hectare of diesel and petrol is the rate of fuel used in paddy production. The fertiliser consumption is 388.53 kilogram per hectare. The removal of fuel subsidies accompanied by the increase in the world crude oil prices significantly impacts farmers’ income and productivity levels as it triggers higher production expenses. The simulation results of the policy suggest that the subsidy rationalisation programme will free up more funds for product development such as precision farming technology as well as increased farm practices by farmers. Keywords : crude oil price, farmers’ income, machinery cost, paddy industry, productivity, system dynamics

A solution for the sunset industry: Adoption of Green Fertiliser Technology amongst Malaysian paddy farmers

Modernising agricultural activity is a key to boost the production level at high efficiency. The paddy industry in Malaysia has been blighted with underproduced yield, which can be intervened with the adoption of Green Fertiliser Technology (GFT) amongst farmers. In this paper, the researchers have measured the intention level of farmers to adopt GFT based on the psychological aspects based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour(TPB). This study is a continuation of the previous studies by observing the direct and, more importantly, the indirect effects of the psychological aspects. Surveys were conducted in the main rice granary areas in Malaysia, such as Integrated Agricultural Development Authorities (IADA), Kemubu Agricultural Development Authorities (KADA), and muda Agricultural Development Authorities (MADA). To check the effects of the psychological factors, the partial least squares – structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to check the significance of those factors towards the intention to adopt GFT amongst those farmers. The results have shown that direct and indirect attitude and indirect subjective norm, as well as direct-indirect perceived behavioural control, have a positive and significant influence on the intention of adopting. More importantly, the results have established behavioural beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs to correspondingly affect attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. Overall, the study represents a guidance for key stakeholders to promote sustainable agriculture methods and innovations. These results advance theoretical understanding of GFT and potentially contribute to predicting Malaysian paddy farmers behaviour.

Extraction of Morphological Features of Malaysian Rice Seed Varieties Using Flatbed Scanner

A high quality cultivated rice seeds are very important for Malaysian paddy industry to ensure a high yield of paddy production. Certified seeds that are mixed with other varieties and unwanted seeds such as weedy rice are considered as poor quality and faced rejection during a quality inspection by the Department of Agriculture. To ensure the seeds are cleaned from any foreign seeds, it is very important to develop a low cost and simple mechanism to classify the seeds according to its varieties. The use of a flatbed scanner is one of the alternative techniques for image acquisition of the seeds varieties. This study was carried out to evaluate morphological features of local rice seed varieties developed for Malaysian rice industry using image processing techniques. Image of four seed varieties, mainly are MR219, MR220, MR263, and MR269 were acquired and extracted using a normal desktop flatbed scanner. A LabVIEW program was developed to extract four main morphology features which are length, width, aspect ratio and rectangular aspect ratio. The extracted data were analysed in terms of its spread and variability. One-way ANOVA was done to compare the means of the morphological features. Further t-test analyses were done to distinguish between two seed varieties based on the variation in the morphological features of the seed kernel. The results indicated that seed length parameter extracted from the image acquired by the flatbed scanner is significant to differentiate the cultivated rice seed except for MR269 and MR220. Seed width can be used as a parameter to distinguish MR269 and MR220 pair. Thus, a combination of morphological parameters is necessary to classify the cultivated rice seed.

PERBANDINGAN CIRI-CIRI SOSIOEKONOMI PENERIMA INOVASI SISTEM INTENSIFIKASI PADI DAN PROJEK ESTET PADI

Rice is a strategic commodity as it is a national staple food in Malaysia. However, Malaysia can only accommodate 70 to 80 percent of domestic needs. Strategies have been carried out by the government to boost rice production in the country include the introduction of innovation among paddy farmers. However, the innovations introduced to the target group in the paddy and rice industry, especially among rice farmers are often faced with the challenge of slow adoption rate despite the proven benefits of innovation. To ensure the innovations introduced coincide with the target group, innovation maker should identify the socioeconomic characteristics of the target group. Therefore, this study aimed to identify socio-economic characteristics of rice farmers who adopt to rice planting management innovation, Paddy Estate Project and SRI technique. Paddy Estate project management is the innovation implemented in the country’s granary areas whereas SRI technique is the paddy innovation management carried on the outside granary area especially in rural area. This study carried out in Paddy Estate Project in Muda area one of the main country’s granary area. This study was also carried out to farmers who apply SRI technique in paddy cultivation area in Peninsular Malaysia which covers the states of Kedah, Selangor, Johor and Kelantan. Based on the findings, there are differences in socio-economic characteristics between groups of farmers who adopt the SRI technique and groups of farmers adopt the Paddy Estate Project.

Acetylation of barnyardgrass starch with acetic anhydride under iodine catalysis

Barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) is an invasive plant that is difficult to control and is found in abundance as part of the waste of the paddy industry. In this study, barnyardgrass starch was extracted and studied to obtain a novel starch with potential food and non-food applications. We report some of the physicochemical, functional and morphological properties as well as the effect of modifying this starch with acetic anhydride by catalysis with 1, 5 or 10mM of iodine. The extent of the introduction of acetyl groups increased with increasing iodine levels as catalyst. The shape of the granules remained unaltered, but there were low levels of surface corrosion and the overall relative crystallinity decreased. The pasting temperature, enthalpy and other gelatinisation temperatures were reduced by the modification. There was an increase in the viscosity of the pastes, except for the peak viscosity, which was strongly reduced in 10mM iodine.

Utilization of Agricultural Wastes in Stabilization of Landfill Soil

Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and Rice Husk Ash (RHA) are local agricultural waste material from Palm Oil Industry and from Paddy Industry in Malaysia. Currently, the disposal of these ashes from a burning process is a problem to both industries, and hence leads to environmental pollution. The main aim of this research was to investigate the potential of utilizing POFA and RHA as sustainable stabilizer material as partial replacement of traditional one which is lime and Portland Cement (PC). Laboratory investigations were carried out to establish the potential utilization of Malaysian Agricultural wastes POFA and RHA in stabilizing Teluk Kapas Landfill soil. Landfill soil on its own and combination with laterite clay soil were stabilized using POFA or RHA either on its own or in combination with Lime or Portland Cement (PC). The traditional stabilizers of lime or Portland Cement (PC) were used as controls. Compacted cylinder test specimens were made at typical stabilizer contents and moist cured for up to 60 days prior to testing for compressive and water absorption tests. The results obtained showed that landfill soil combined with laterite clay (50:50) stabilized with 20% RHA:PC (50:50)and POFA: PC (50:50) recorded the highest values of compressive strength compared to the other compositions of stabilizers and soils. However, when the amount of POFA and RHA increased in the system the compressive strength values of the samples tends to increase. These results suggest technological, economic as well as environmental advantages of using POFA and RHA and similar industrial by-products to achieve sustainable infrastructure development with near zero industrial waste.

Roles of Extension Agents Towards Agricultural Practice in Malaysia

It is expected that the income generated by paddy industry will increase up to 988 million per year. In order to achieve this, extension agents plays important role in educating farmers by encouraging them to learn, adopt new technologies and spread them to other farmers. To ensure the success of extension program, the agents should recognize their roles as change agents (as a catalyst, solution giver, process helper, and resource linker) and have ability to acquire competencies to accomplish these roles. Thus, this study aims to explore the level of roles among extension agents. Using a quantitative survey methodology, self-administered questionnaires measuring the roles of extension agents as change agents. A total of 117 extension agents had participated in this study. The extension agents were the officers from various agricultural departments and agencies who serve paddy farmers in Malaysia region in related to extension, marketing, financing, farmers association, production, and others. The finding showed that the level of roles among extension agents is high. Hence, the competency of extension agents in Malaysia is indeed especially as a change agents and one of the important determinants of success for agriculture industry in Malaysia. This study emphasized that in order to improve the performance of agricultural extension agents, one of the way is by getting to know their competencies, skills and abilities. The extension agents, Farmers, policy makers, researchers, academics and people working in agriculture can learn a great deal about what individuals and institutions need to do to develop farmers, personally and professionally.