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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