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Monday 13 July 2015

Increasing the Market for Locally Processed Rice in Nigeria through Adoption of new technologies. Lawrence T. Ogunremi (PhD), Ag Executive Director -National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi



 
INTRODUCTION 



Over 50% of worlds energy requirement are from three “mega-crops” which are rice, wheat, and maize.

q  In many countries, rice accounts for more than 70% of human caloric intake.
q  The world per capita consumption of rice rose from 50 kg in the 1960s to 65 kg in the 1990s
q  China currently is the world’s largest rice producer (Fig. 1) — around 193 million metric tons
q  But 90% of the rice area in China is irrigated which contrary to the rain-fed production system in Nigeria
q  There is high domestic consumption of rice in countries that produce rice, as only 5- 6% of rice is exported.
q  There is a constant pressure to strike a balance between high prices for producers and low prices for consumers. 

World Export Market
q  Rice exported in the international market is from few countries and these countries tend to dictate the price and the volume of rice traded.
q  Unlike maize and wheat, most rice tends to be eaten where it is produced and so very little enters international markets.
q  In the international rice trade, a relatively small number of exporting countries must interact with a large number of importing countries
q  In the first decade of the 2000s, the top five exporters had 81% of the world market Thailand has consistently been the world’s largest exporter of rice, followed by Vietnam and India
q  In the first decade of the 2000s, the top five exporters had 81% of the world market
q  Imports of rice are widely dispersed across countries
q  Large purchases by individual importing country could contribute significantly to world rice price dynamics and Nigeria is in the position to impact this effect.
q  But these volumes traded are based on quality criteria adopted by the international market.
q  Rice traded must meet certain specifications in terms of grain quality before entering the market,
   

The Africa scenario
q  West African demand for rice has grown at an annual average of 6% or more and driven by a combination of population growth, urbanization and substitution of traditional coarse grains with rice, and an increased adoption of improved technologies, and farm inputs.
q  FAO has projected an annual growth rate of 4.6% beyond the year 2000
q  The total volume of rice consumed in West Africa is likely to increase by 70% over this decade, this is a huge market for Nigeria to enter and dominate.
q  Several initiatives at both regional and national levels has been launched aimed at attaining self-sufficiency in rice
q  However, improvement in postharvest loss reduction through good harvest and postharvest handling are not sufficiently treated.
q  Poor rice processing technologies and techniques has presented rice development with two main challenges, (1) significant loss in quantity of rice produced (2) lower quality of locally processed rice.
 
Nigeria scenario
q  Nigeria has 84 million ha of arable land, untapped water resources and a market of 165 million people and currently, only about 39% s of this is cultivated.
q  Rice is the most important food because it is the most preferred food amongst women, youth and children particularly in the urban centers.
q  The per capita consumption has increased from 15.8kg/person/year from 1981s to about 32kg/person/year currently
q  Demand in Nigeria is 5 MMT, with an average production of about 2.21 MMT. The deficit of 2.79 MMT is filled through importation. WHY?
q  Per capita rice production has remained stagnant at about 28 kg/person since 1990, while annual per capita consumption has increased from 18 kg to 34 kg in the same period. Rice yields have remained at below 2 mt/ha. Rice imports have generally grown faster than both rice production and the population with the latter two growing at about the same pace.
q  The average Nigerian household spent 6% of its total income on rice, the highest amongst all staples in both urban and rural areas.
q  Consumer prefer imported rice, as it tends to have a higher swelling capacity, and preferred grain shapes and is clean, polished, not broken, without stones or other debris, and suitable for a variety of dishes (e.g. jollof rice, fried rice).
q  Most local rice cannot adequately compete with imports on a quality basis, as it is often improperly processed and contains high levels of impurities.
q  If this is the case then Nigerian rice traders should give the consumers what they want.

q  How do we then do this? 
q  This is the big question.
                                     
                                                  
                   Factors responsible for poor quality milled rice in Nigeria
q  Non uniformity of paddy rice in terms of grain shape and size
q  The popular improved rice varieties have been mixed with other varieties or volunteer crops due to poor cultural practices, presenting rice processing with challenges of varietal mixture
q  Rice varieties respond differently to processing conditions, therefore mix varieties present difficulties in uniform soaking during parboiling. When such mixed varieties are processed, they turn out poor quality milled rice.
q  Poor Degree of Milling (DOM)
q  The locally milled rice is mostly brownish due to minimal degree of milling (DOM) by the village mills.

q  Significant portion of the bran are still found on the grain, have diverse color variation due to the presence of red endosperm grain types that mixed with the rice as volunteer crop during cropping.
q  This results in poor grain quality and therefore low price.
q  Poor Head Rice Recovery (HRR)
q  HRR of rice depend on the variety and cultural, physical and technological attributes of the paddy.
q  While endosperm pigmentation mainly found in O. glaberrima species has significant effect on the energy required to mill rice as more shearing and frictional forces are required to polish it. More polishing results in more broken rice.
q  Pigmentation of the endosperm and husk may also dissolve during soaking and steaming operations and this deepens the color of the parboiled rice.
q  Poor parboiling operations
q  Significant numbers of local rice processors are still using cold water soaking technology, which favors fermentation and subsequent development of offensive odors, reducing the market values of rice.
q  Poor Technology for milling
q  Milling is critical in obtaining high total head rice recovery and in Nigeria, most local rice millers use the steel roller mills (Angelberg). This produced significantly high level of broken rice fraction and therefore reduces market price of locally milled rice.
q  Other qualities of paddy such as moisture content, presence of stones
q  Paddy collected at different locations in Nigeria indicated moisture content ranging between 11-13%.
q  This moisture content is suitable for processing and storage with little or no major concern for mold growth and damage. Stones were found in all the samples of paddy
                                                                                                   
 What NCRI is doing?

1.       Development of appropriate variety for processing and consumption
q  Breed and released 63 improved rice varieties with different characteristics along with production technologies that meet the preference of the varied players along the rice value chain
q  The most popular of these are FARO52, FARO44, FARO60, FARO61 and FARO 62.
q  Good quality seeds of this varieties have been made available to farmers and foundation seeds made available to seed companies to improve seed production
q  It does not end with good quality and preferred rice varieties but also in adopting innovative recommended agronomic practices and the recommended harvesting and postharvest operations. This is where the farmers miss it; and this is the crust of the problem.

2.       Improved harvest and postharvest technologies
NCRI with its partners have developed simple mobile rice thresher/cleaners having 6-8tons capacity per day for the improvement of rice threshing and cleaning.
q  NCRI has also developed and improved water-floatation steaming and soaking technology for rice parboiling. This technology involves soaking the paddy in hot water at 70-85oC and steaming before drying; this reduces the soaking and steaming time by about 5-6 hours
q  This results in 23% increase in head rice recovery and 80% preference against locally parboiled rice.


3.Capacity Building in rice processing and packaging

q  Training of significant number of rice processors on the improved rice processing steps have improved the quality of locally milled rice.
q  Several processors from different rice processing clusters in Nigeria have been trained on processing and packaging of locally milled rice as a step to enhance market.
q  Recently, 100 rice processing entrepreneurs under the Growing Girls and Women Initiative of Nigeria (G-WIN) benefited from such training and have improved the quality of rice they processed.
q  Over 100 local artisans have also been trained in the manufacturing of the thresher/cleaners to increase national coverage

4. Cleaning and grading systems
q  It is a general fact the rice does not produce stones and other impurities found in paddy.
q  We have in recent years developed wet cleaning vessel based on the gravimetric properties of rice and impurities.
q  Less dense materials, mainly chaff and other materials are removed from the float, while filled rice are removed from the second layer and stones and other heavier impurities are left at the bottom.
q   
q  These have resulted in high quality paddy fed into the parboiling vessel.

5. Packaging and branding of local rice
q  Locally milled rice is often sold without packaging or branding.
q  Currently several donor agencies and local partners are facilitating branding and packaging of locally milled rice to improve its competitiveness.
q  NCRI and Africa Rice Centre, with funding from the Canadian Government, are training small scale millers and processor on the branding and packaging of their products to improve demand and market value.

6. Standard and Grade Development
NCRI and its national and international partners have conducted consumer preference studies of locally milled rice across all the geopolitical zones and evaluated grain quality characteristics of Nigerian rice as strategy to develop standards and grades for locally milled rice to enhance it market.

7. Uses of rice by-products
q  Straws are the major by-product of rice production, while hull, bran and small broken rice fractions are major by-products of rice processing
q  Modern rice varieties, straw production is at least equal to the paddy rice yield, based on the harvest index (ratio of grain to grain plus straw) of 0.5
q  Relatively fewer husk and bran are produced, representing 20-24% of rough rice among modern varieties
q  The energy value of rice husk and straw has been reported to range between 8000 to 13,000Kj/kg.
q  Approximately 30- 40% of the rice bran in the major rice producing countries of Asia is used to extract high quality cooking oil that is known to decrease blood cholesterol levels in humans, a practice that is virtually absent in Nigeria.
q  NCRI has recently developed briquetting machine that comprises rice hull into briquette to fire rice parboiling vessels, which significantly reduce the cost of local rice processing and therefore increase its market.
q  Low grade broken rice fractions have also been formulated in combination with local legumes to produce value added high protein-energy foods. This has improved profit margin from local rice processing and enhance food and nutrition security of Nigerians. 

The way forward
q  On-farm crop quality management techniques to maintain paddy quality
q  Grow suitable varieties from good-quality paddy
q  Avoid growing different varieties together in the same piece of land
q  Avoid harvesting immature grains by harvesting at the right time
q  Drain fields prior to harvesting
q  Avoid heaping harvested panicles on the field for a long time to prevent fungal damage
q  Avoid cross-contamination of seed during threshing, winnowing and drying
q  Prevent paddy from touching the ground during heaping (piling), threshing, winnowing and drying by using a clean concrete pad, polypropylene sack or tarpaulin

                            
q  Winnow the rice seeds after threshing and pack in a clean sack
q  Dry the seeds well and disinfect the sack before packing for storage.
q  Remove floating immature grains, residual dirt and stones
q  Soak paddy in hot water (70-80%) and ensure that all grains are covered with hot water during soaking
q  Drain the water and steam the paddy (do not boil) and cover with cloth while steaming and steam until 25%-40%of grains have split open
q  Spread on a clean surface to dry and turn frequently
q  Avoid very hot sun during drying 

Conclusion
q  Access, adoption and capacity improvement on the recommended practices will increase the demand for locally processed rice,
q   This will trigger production of high quality paddy, improve milled rice quality.
q   Thus opening up of more irrigation facilities through which we can have double and triple cropping of rice.
q   While doing all these, however, we should not forget to carry along the women farmers.

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