Rice Traders Research Articles

THE FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY OF RICE DRYERS: A Case Study in Subang District, West Java

<p>Drying is a critical activity in rice postharvest handling. Any delay in drying will result in quality and quantity losses. Farmers and traders prefer to sell wet grain rather than dried grain of unhulled rice due to less attractive incentive for them to do drying. The study was conducted in Subang District, West Java, during March-June 2011 using survey method to analyze the financial feasibility of rice dryers. The respondents interviewed were 15 rice millers who have either sun-drying floor or mechanical dryer, or both. The main collected data were the investment cost, operational cost, maintenance cost, and the revenue of the dryers. The data were analyzed by using shortterm and long-term financial analyses to assess the profitability and feasibility of some drying technologies. The results showed that there were at least three drying technologies in the study area, namely sun-drying floor, flatbed dryer using gas fuel (gas dryer), and flatbed dryer using rice husk fuel (husk dryer). Under the mean capacity, the short-run MBCR of technological change from sun dryer to gas dryer was 1.29, while from sun dryer to husk dryer was 1.45. The long-run analysis showed that the IRRs were 44.44% for sun dryer, 233.47% for gas dryer, and 260.49% for husk dryer. These results showed that among the three drying technologies, husk dryer is the most profitable, most feasible, and most prospective to be adopted. Therefore, this type of dryer should be intensively promoted to the farmers’ group associations, rice traders, and rice millers. The government support in terms of rice dryers for farmers’ group associations should be focused on husk dryer.</p>

Assessing the potential of SRI management principles and the FFS approach in Northeast Thailand for sustainable rice intensification in the context of climate change

The paper describes the facilitated learning process of farmers, its results and implications in addressing the low productivity of Jasmine rice in northeast Thailand using the SRI-FFS approach in a collaborative action research. Other involved included rice traders, millers, researchers, government and non-governmental organizations. Working through an inclusive process of dialogue, observation, diagnosis, experimentation and exposure to different types of innovative agronomic crop management (IACM) practices resulting from the SRI–FFS approach, participants made a thorough analysis of the current management practices and evaluated various IACM practices for their productivity and profitability. The results confirmed the potential of IACM in enhancing crop and water productivity along with soil fertility with relatively low input-use (seed, water and fertilizers) and higher net farm-income compared to existing crop management practices. However, factors such as (i) the age of the farmers and (ii) off-farm employment opportunity are key drivers that affect the crop management decision-making process. Therefore, exploration of value-added production alternatives and favourable policies is required to sustain IACM that can benefit farmers, consumers and the environment. The participation of policy-makers at the action research continuum is essential for effective follow up, scaling up and sustainability of such environmentally sound practices.

Diversity in local rice germplasm and rice farming: A case study of Thailand

Local rice varieties or land races continue to play a key role in rice farming in many parts of Asia, especially in and near the center of diversity of Oryza sativa. This paper provides a review of work done in Thailand, showing how local varieties meet the need of rice farming in areas not reached by improved varieties for ecological, economic and social reasons, while serving to maintain genetic diversity in the field. Far from being archaic inferior types, local rice varieties can outyield modern varieties in these difficult places. Continuing seed selection by farmers resulted in individual seed lots with uniform appearance of the grain and plants, including in those characteristics that are important in crop management such as flowering and maturity time. Such uniformity that satisfies rice growers, traders and consumers, however, hides enormous genetic diversity measurable with molecular markers as well as in useful traits. Variation is found between seed of the same varieties kept by different farmers and within individual seed lots, as well as between different varieties. Hybridization among local rice varieties and also with the common wild rice (O. rufipogon) is likely to be enhanced by traits for cross pollination, e.g. extruded stigma and pollen shedding outside the glumes. Genetic diversity of this important germplasm is maintained by farmers' seed management and selection. Regular seed turnover and exchanges add to the sorting process and genetic differentiation.