BY JOJO DE GUZMAN

SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ, Nueva Ecija. — The proper postproduction practices and technologies that should be extended to rice farmers can help our country save some P32.8 billion worth of rice every year, enough to feed 12.6 million Filipinos annually.

This was the reason a research team from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) based here is developing a guide in harvesting, threshing, cleaning, drying, storing, and milling to help farmers address problems on harvest and postharvest losses.

Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra, chairman of the House committee on agriculture, has said that if the country’s losses are "applied on last year’s actual palay harvest," it "translates to 1.494 billion kilos of wasted rice, valued at P32.87 billion at a retail price of P22 per kilo."

Mitra said that if each Filipino eats about 118.7 kilos of rice annually, the wasted rice would have met the rice needs of 12.586 million Filipinos for a year. "That’s one-seventh of the country’s 86.97 million population last year," he said.

Mitra added "the losses could have fed all public school elementary students rice three times a day, seven days a week for one whole year. Or it could have met the annual rice consumption of Metro Manila for a year."

Last year, some P24 billion was spent by the government in importing almost two billion kilos of rice, which could have been spent to build rice-saving post-harvest facilities and could have canceled the need to import rice in the first place.

"About 15 percent of palay production [is] lost to lack of post-harvest facilities such as dryers and storage. Total palay production last year reached 15.327 billion kilos, or when milled, about 9.962 billion kilos of rice," Mitra said.

A kilo of palay loses 35 percent of its weight during milling when the husk is shed off, leaving behind polished rice. Mitra added that "sadly, next year’s budget for post-harvest infrastructure is only P336 million, which is a sizeable drop from this year’s level of P1.114 billion".

If our rice import bill is also P24 billion next year, then it would be 72 times bigger than what we intend to spend for post-harvest facilities, he added.

Mitra asked that instead of using our dollars to buy rice grown by foreigners, why not use a fraction of it for post-harvest infrastructure and know-how so the country can conserve the rice that have been produced domestically.

The Palawan solon is supported by farmers in saying that the government should invest more in post-harvest facilities so that harvested rice can be conserved so it can eventually reach the table.

The PhilRice experts, composed of Engr. Artemio B. Vasallo, Dr. Manuel Jose C. Regalado, Dr. Eulito U. Bautista, Dr. Dante B. de Padua, Engr. Eden C. Gagelonia, Engr. Ricardo F. Orge, Ms. Susan F. Brena, and Ms. Riza Abilgos-Ramos, are advising farmers to look into the grains’ moisture content (MC) and panicle maturity.

They said harvesting can be done best before the moisture content averages from 20 to 25 percent, or when 80-85 percent or more of the grains are already mature.

Moisture content, according to the team, can be determined using a moisture meter. "Rice grains are 80-85 percent mature when the uppermost sections of the panicles are golden yellow, clear and firm, and those at the base are in the hard dough stage," they explained.

Farmers are advised to drain the field 10-14 days before harvest time in heavy soils and 5-7 days in light soils.

Moreover, the team recommends the use of mechanical harvesters especially in areas where farm labor is inadequate.

Among the harvesters recommended by the researchers are the walking-type harvesters (which can harvest 2-2.5 hectares per day), the stripper or stripper-gatherer-harvesters (which can harvest up to one hectare a day), and the combine harvesters (which can harvest 1-3 hectares per day).

After harvesting, threshing must be done right away to prevent grain losses. To do this, farmers must separate grains from the panicle by rubbing, impact, or stripping, using either manually or mechanically operated threshers.

According to the researchers, there are two recommended kinds of threshers according to method of feeding. These are the hold-on-type (which strips the panicle without damaging the straw or the grain) and the throw-in-type (which has a separating and cleaning mechanism).

Not only that, "farmers can also choose threshers according to the movement of material to be threshed," the researchers averred. They explained that the through-flow thresher can separate the grain while driving the straw out of the thresher, while the axial-flow thresher can separate the grain while moving the straw around the axial cylinder to be discharged at the end of the machine.

The PhilRice researchers said it is also necessary to consider the speed of the threshing drum since this affects the quality of the grains. "For throw-in-types, the speed must range from 14.50 to 18.25 m/s while for the hold-on type, it must range from 10.75 to 13. 25 m/s," they added.

Another important post-production activity is cleaning the grains before drying.

In cleaning the rice grains, they are recommending the use of the IRRI grain cleaner (which has a cleaning capacity of 0.25 to 1 ton per hour and a purity output of 99 percent) and the PhilRice hybrid rice/inbred seed cleaner (which has a cleaning capacity of 1 ton per hour and purity output of 98 to 99 percent).

Farmers are also advised to clean the grains again after drying since most of the impurities are not easily removed from wet rice during the pre-cleaning process.

In drying, farmers are ordered to see to it that grains are properly dried.

Proper drying the grains, according to them, is important to lessen the risk of spoilage, prevent insect activity, and avoid grain discoloration caused by grain heating at high moisture content.

Some farmers prefer sundrying because it is cheap, does not entail cost for energy consumption, and drying areas are readily available.

To ensure quality of harvested grains, reduce harvesting losses and dependence on weather conditions for harvest, and allow more time for postharvest field work, PhilRice promotes mechanical dryers such as the flatbed dryer. The dryer, according to the researchers, has a capacity of 1 to 6 tons per batch and removes moisture at the rate of 1 percent per hour.

Storage plays a significant role in ensuring the availability of stocks. It also provides reserves for unpredictable circumstances such as drought, flood, and war. The research team advises farmers to store grains at a safe moisture level of 14 percent wet basis or lower for prolonged storage.

In milling rice, farmers must use the multipass rice mills since a single pass mill has a low milling recovery of only 55 percent. Multipass rice mills, according to the researchers, have an average milling recovery of above 60 percent. Farmers must consider the quality of palay, milling setup, and knowledge and efficiency of mill operators. A 14 percent moisture content is needed to mill rice.

A 1995 study by the predecessor of the Bureau of Post-Harvest Research Extension of the Department of Agriculture revealed that on the average 14.84 percent of the volume of palay harvested are lost in six after-harvest phases between piling and milling.

According to the National Statistics Office, the country imported - mostly by the National Food Authority - 1.916 million metric tons (MT) of rice in 2006, valued at $513.34 million, or P23.61 billion at P46 pesos to the US dollar. Palay harvested that year reached 15.326 million MT. One metric ton is equivalent to 1,000 kilos.