RICE

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION
Post-Harvest System
Post-Harvest losses
2. CHAPTER 2. POST-HARVEST STORAGE OF RICE
How to store
3. CHAPTER 3. POST-HARVEST PROCESSING OF RICE
Harvesting
Threshing
Drying
Cleaning
Milling
NEW INNOVATIONS IN RICE PROCESSING
Bio polishing
4. CHAPTER 4. POST HARVEST DISTRIBUTION OF RICE
Profit potential
INTRODUCTION
Grains are among the major commodities feeding mankind, the cleaning, drying and storage
of grain are postharvest operations required to maintain product quality. (Brooker, D. E., et
al, 1992). The term grain is interpreted broadly and includes the cereal grains (maize, rice,
wheat, sorghum, barley, oats, millet), the oil seeds (soybeans, sunflower seeds, canola) and
the pulses (edible beans).
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food consumed by over half the world population. The total
world production of unmilled rice (paddy) is around 592 million tonnes (Mt) (based on the
average production for 2000 and 2001). Ninety percent of this total is grown in developing
countries, mostly in Asia, while the Latin America and Africa produce 3.8 and 2.8 percent
respectively (FAOSTAT, 2001).
It is estimated that by 2025, 10 billion people will depend on rice as a main food and demand
will reach about 880 Mt. Many Asian countries and International institutions agree to the
strengthening of national programmes for policy and financial support to research, seed
production and extension hybrid rice (FAO, 2001).
The rice post-harvest systems requires improvement in the use of resources for research and
development, particularly with regard to the level of post-harvest losses. These losses are
attributed to a combination of factors during production and post-production operations (De
padua, 1999). Among several rice- producing techniques, the least developed area is the post-
harvest treatment. The reason for this is because that if crops are not dried and stored
appropriately by sensing unseen moisture and crop temperature, the storage stability in rice,
which is better than other crops cannot be adequately demonstrated. This ultimately causes
poor results including the generation of substantial amounts of damaged rice, while taste also
deteriorates, milling yield decreases, edible amounts do not improve, and the farmer
motivation for producing rice deteriorates. These are solely attributable to poor knowledge of
appropriate techniques.
Post-harvest technique is not an independent technique. It starts with producing paddies as
consistent in quality as possible when cultivating rice. The uniform quality of the paddies
should not be damaged at any stage of post-harvest treatment.

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This paper presents an overview of the main post-harvest operations traditionally used by rice
farmers in Nigeria and the importance of post-harvest technologies for minimizing rice
losses. Inadequately performed drying and storage operations contribute to increased losses.
Post-harvest system
The post-harvest system consists of a set of operations which cover the period from harvest
through to consumption. An efficient post-harvest system aims to minimize losses and
maintain quality of the crop until it reaches the final consumer. When food losses are
minimized, both food security and income increase, and this is of vital importance for small
and medium farmers, particularly in developing countries.
Post-harvest losses
The traditional concept of post-harvest losses- for the main part quantitative losses – is
currently changing. Many post-harvest specialists, recognize that measurement of post-
harvest is a very relative concept for various reasons; for example, losses can be determined
as a function of theoretical yield, real yield, soil and fertility conditions, variety etc. Then
there are the other losses which are not normally measured, such as agricultural inputs, time,
manual labour, lost opportunities etc. In spite of the above, when post-harvest losses are
assessed- whether in grains, cereals, fruits and vegetables- the most practical reliable
approach (and therefore the norm) continues to be quantitative measurement.
The post-harvest system for rice deserves special attention: rice is a major staple food in the
world and is mostly produced in developing countries where the implementation of post-
harvest technologies is urgent in order to prevent food rice losses. It has been estimated that
rice post-harvest losses may be as high as 16 percent.
Rice losses occur at all stages of the post-harvest chain. Accepted figures for quantitative
post-harvest losses in rice range from 10 to almost 40 percent, with the following breakdown.
- Harvesting, 1 to 3 percent
- Handling, 2 to 7 percent
- Threshing, 2 to 6 percent
- Drying, 1 to 5 percent
- Storage, 2 to 6 percent
- Milling, 2 to 10 percent.
Paddy Post-Harvest Operations.

CHAPTER 2.
POST-HARVEST STORAGE OF RICE
Storage is the art of keeping the quality of agricultural materials and preventing them from
deterioration for specific period of time, beyond their normal shelf life. Different crops are
harvested and stored by various means depending on the end utilization. Whether the seed
will be used for new plantings the following year, for forage being processed into livestock
feed, or even for crops to be developed for a special use, the grower must be aware of
harvesting and storage requirements toward a quality product. After determining the
prescribed use for the crop, timing for harvest and storage is of important consideration.
Along with an assessment of when to harvest, the farmer needs to determine the method of
harvesting.
There are a wide range of storage structures used throughout the world to successfully store
horticultural produce. In general the structure needs to be kept cool (refrigerated, or at least
ventilated and shaded) and the produce put into storage must be of high initial quality.
Storage is essential for the following reasons:
• Perishable nature of agric. & bio-materials
• Provision of food materials all year round

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• Pilling/ provision for large scale processing
• Preservation of nutritional quality
• Price control and regulation
• Optimization of farmers‟ gain / financial empowerment of farmers
Paddy may be produced once a year or throughout the year. Consequently, it is important to
improve and expand the post-harvest infrastructure for better handling, processing, storage of
the paddy. Storage is a critical operation and losses can easily occur if preventive measures
are not taken.
The main purpose of grain storage facility is to provide safe storage conditions for rice grains
in order to prevent grain loss caused by adverse weather, moisture, rodents, insects and
micro-organisms like fungi etc.
At farm household level, storage is essential for food security or as a commodity bank for
conversion into cash when required. Unfortunately, small-scale or marginal farmers often
lack the resources to store large amounts of grain and do not have a large storage structure;
they are therefore obliged to sell their paddy to traders and buyers immediately after harvest.
They carry out no further processing (drying, cleaning and grading) because of the immediate
need for cash, and there is a lack of incentive to dry, as there is no significant difference in
price between wet and dried paddy. The paddy is only dried for safe storage, and then only
the amount necessary for consumption or a little more for cash conversion or to sell at a
better price.
The traditional storage structure used by farmers in Nigeria range from sacks, bamboo,
baskets, can drums and small granaries for large quantity of rough rice is a special room
within the farmer’s house is used.

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Structure plays a critical role in agriculture, especially in the area of storing raw materials,
finished product, equipment and livestock (Steffen, 2001). Structure is a body which is
capable of resisting applied load without any deformation. Storage structure is any place or
thing that is designed, fabricated especially to perform the function of safe keeping of
produce. It can also be referred to as: all those facilities within and some far removed from an
agricultural establishment, used for the storage of agricultural inputs and produce (Gwinner et
al, 1990).
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HOW TO STORE
Paddy rice is packed in 50-100kg jute bags and placed on pallets and stored inside the
warehouses. Paddy can also be stored in bulk storage in the warehouse or silos. The ware
house should be well ventilated with windows facing north and south (this is to avoid
penetration of sunlight). However, many farmers do not paddy on pallets, neither do they
store it in ventilated places.
For proper storage of paddy for milling and parboiling, it is recommended that:
1. The warehouse should be properly treated and disinfected before introducing the
paddy with neem pepper and other locally available chemicals against insects,
microorganisms and rodents.
2. Paddy should be placed on clean disinfected pallets.
3. Paddy should be stored at a distance (50cm) away from the walls, (50cm – 1m) away
from the roof, (50cm) between the pallets and (1m) from the walk way.
4. The grain moisture content should be maintained at 14% w. b. or less
5. Rice bags should not be directly on the floor. Those bags should be laid on the rack
above 20cm above the floor
6. The longer the grains needs to be stored, the lower the required moisture content will
need to be.
7. Grain and paddy seed stored at moisture content above 14% w. b. may experience the
growth of molds, rapid loss of viability and a reduction in eating quality.
8. If the moisture content of paddy inside the bag is high, open all mouths of bags to
release vapor and heat coming from the paddy itself. Its better to spread such paddy of
high moisture content on plastic sheet for room conditions drying.

CHAPTER THREE
POST- HARVEST PROCESSING OF RICE
Excessive hulling or threshing can also result in grain losses, particularly in the case of rice
(hulling) which can suffer cracks and lesions. The grain is then only worth less, but also
becomes vulnerable to insects such as rice moth (Corcyra cephalonica).

Harvesting
Harvesting is the process of obtaining plant parts or component of plant -
parts that has reached its physiological maturity or at the stage of growth ideal for separating
it from the stock plant. The act of harvesting can be picking, pulling, plucking, slashing,
cutting, stripping and shaking the economic part of the plant that is of interest to the
harvester. Time to harvest a crop is often determined by
changes that takes place in the economic part of the crop and, in some cases, the entire plant.
This change can be in the form of visual appearance, smell, colour, size, and the moisture
content.
(1) For the rice crop, the harvest time is often determined by the visual appearance,
colour, and moisture content of the grains. When the crop ripens, rice grains will be
filled and tight, the grain colour change from green to olive green to yellow and the
moisture content drops between 18%w.b and 22%w.b. [on weight basis].
(2) It is important to take note of the optimum harvesting time and crop maturity signs.
Not taking note of the timing or missing the signs can cause the rice grains to remain in the
field where the grain moisture content falls below 18%. When this occurs, any incidental
wetting by rainfalls will cause the grains to absorb moisture and may germinate. Some rice

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varieties have shattering ability and any delay harvesting will cause yield losses through
shattering. That is when ripen
grains just fall to the ground when slight winds and rainfalls touch the crop; or when the
farmer is moving through the field.
(2) Two main observations used to determine the correct harvest time for rice grains are:
Moisture content: Grain moisture content is ideally between 18 and 22% w.b.(wet basis).
Grains should be firm but not crumbly when pressed between the teeth.
Ripe grains per panicle: The crop should be harvested when 80 -85% of the grains on the
field have changed colour from green to matured yellow.
(4) When harvesting the rice by sickle or knife, cut the rice straw 4-5 cm from the ground
level and do not leave much bigger portion of its standing.
Standing straws and straw stumps still remaining in the field can have stem -borer worms and
adults to complete its life cycle. Always destroy the straw by cutting as low as possible to the
ground and up -root and destroy the straw stumps and incorporate it into the soil by hoeing
soon after the harvest and ready for the next season.
(5) Do not allow the rice crop to extend its growing period by allowing secondary tillers with
late panicles emerging when the main rice crop is about ripening. Overlap cropping allows
the spreading of the flowering, grain -filling, grain ripening and harvesting period and timing,
giving opportunity to pests like stem
-borers and rice bugs to thrive.
(6) Overlap cropping will also result in harvest of immature and empty grains which can be
the cause of extra volume and weight of rubbish ,resulting in increased grain -fracture during
milling when not winnowed and cleaned.
2. Threshing
Threshing is the physical process of separating the grains from the rice straw and the
panicles. Threshing of rice can be done by hand, foot, or simply by a swinging, beating and
whipping actions against a framed object. Threshing can also be done with winnowing
machines. In PNG agriculture, threshing grains is not a common
Threshed rice will contain a lot of chaff and foreign materials, therefore, after drying ,
cleaning needs to be carried out.
The following steps are undertaking during the threshing:
(1)Harvested paddy should be threshed simultaneously on the day of harvest.
(2)Rice straws and panicles harvested that are wet from over-night rains or by the morning
dew must be field -dried before threshing, often morning half of the day is committed to
harvesting and afternoon -half of the day is to do all the threshing.
(3) Use wide canvass or plastic sheets with the edges raised to catch all the grains being
threshed through the beating action as shown in Figure 4.
(4) Dry the paddy soon after threshing both in the outdoor and the in -door sheds to prevent
grains from fermentation if the moisture remains in a heap or bag of grains for too long.
.
3. Drying
Drying is the process that reduces the moisture content of the rice paddy down to a safe -level
where rice can be properly milled and, importantly, put away safely for storage. Drying is the
most critical operation after harvesting a rice crop. Any delay in the drying process,
incomplete drying or ineffective drying will reduce the grain quality and result in post -
harvest losses.
(1) Sun -dry the wet paddy by spreading the grains evenly on a plastic sheet or a canvass
with the layer of about 4 -5cm depth. Turn -over the paddy every 30 minutes using a
garden rake and by using hand and foot, tenderly spreading the grains as they dry.

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 Slow -drying of the rice paddy will prevent cracking; and by contrast, quick and fast
drying will cause the grains to crack and will result in lot of broken grains when
milled.
(2) It is preferable to dry your paddy in a sheltered area (sheltered from direct sun -light and
any sudden rain -fall) over three days, and occasionally bringing it out to direct sun drying for
at least 30 minutes each day.
(3) Ensure that the surface temperature of rice paddy being dried does not rise above 36°C or
must be kept lower than 36°C
. High grains temperature will destroy the grain embryo if one is to keep the grains for seeds.
In a stored grains, both in sacks or canvass bags with inadequate drying, the paddy rice
temperature can suddenly rises above 36°C
, this may mean there is a high moisture content and the rice paddy may germinate under such
condition. However, the germination will be short-lived as all the seeds that sprout will be
smothered within the storage sack or canvass.
(4) When putting the high moisture paddy into the bags, keep the mouth of bags open to all
the air movement and the release the heat and dampness from bag.
4. Cleaning
Cleaning is the process to remove rice straw chaff, foreign matters and immature/empty
grains within paddy after threshing and drying. High
Percentage of chaff, foreign matters include the soil piece, sand, small stones, metal debris,
plastic or paper pieces, twig and branches, wood piece, weed
seed, other grains, chemical and poisonous matters, etc., will unnecessarily increase the
number of sack of rice and weight of paddy, which may cost the grower avoidable transport
fees and milling fees paid the mill operator; and for the rice mill operator the cost of wear -
and-tear and spoilage to his machine.
(1)The importance of cleaning is as follows:
① To remove foreign matter, broken and immature grains to gain high milling recovery rate
[to reduce broken rice amount].
② To increase the milling efficiency [to reduce fuel consumption].
③ To decrease the damage of machine.
④ To decrease running cost due to less wear of consumable parts.
⑤ To increase more than 5% of mechanical efficiency and energy consumption if percentage
of foreign matter, broken and immature grains is less than 1%.
⑥ To decrease post-harvest loss.
(2)Prevent broken rice. 5% broken rice decrease 10% on milling recovery.
(3) The immature grains are classified into impurity. Immature grains decrease the milling
recovery rate and the mechanical efficiency of the rice milling unit and is the cause of broken
rice grains.
(4) Use winnowing tray / basket and mechanical cleaners such as manual winnower,
oscillating sieves and aspirator. Small stone and sand that cannot be removed by winnowing
can be removed hand picking.

5. MILLING
This technically refers to the removal of the husk to obtain ‘brown rice’ and gently polishing
off the bran to obtain a whole milled grain. It involves hulling and polishing. While hulling
involves removing the husk from the Paddy with minimum damage to the grain and
separating the husk from the Paddy with minimum damage to the grain and separating the
husk from the Paddy to produce brown rice (Little et al., 2002) milling combines a series of
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mechanical processes that may remove the hull, the outer layers and the embryo of the rice
grain. Polishing on the other hand refer to the process of removing the ‘Subaleurone’ layer
after whitening to give the rice grains a shiny appearance. Milling is accomplished by friction
and abrasion processes that remove the bran layer from the brown rice grains; friction
between the grains breaks and peels off the bran, while with abrasion, a rough surface peels
off the bran.
The objectives of milling includes
(1) To remove the rice husk
(2) To remove the rice bran and polish the rice kernel to increase appeal
(3) To improve packaging and storage.
EQUIPMENT FOR MILLING
Most varieties of milling machines currently in use in Sub Sahara African (SSA) countries
have capacities between 100kg/h to over 1 ton/h. they may be rubber roll mills or single pass
‘Eengelberg’ hullers. Rubber roll mills may have pre-cleaners, destoners, graders, including
rotary sifters. Rubber rolls wear out very fast and maintenance is not very easy as compared
with Engelberg mills that are easy to maintain. Engelberg hullers have no pre-cleaner, they
are single pass, with no graders. The Engelberg mills have to be redesigned to include
aspirators. If paddy has to be milled using rubber rolls it should be free of sand, stones and
other impurities that contribute to the deterioration of the rolls. The paddy should have a
moisture content of between 12 to 14%.
There is in existence several medium and large scale milling machines.
The medium types are about 3 tons per hour capacity. The large scale commercial millers
have all the processes with all the accessories listed above including sometimes large silo for
storage and mechanical dryers. The output is more than 5tons per hour.

THINGS TO NOTE.
1. Rubber roll mill houses should have a reliable source of good spare parts.
2. They should also be sited in locations where experienced mechanics to maintain them
are available.
3. Mill operators should have a basic knowledge of record keeping and planning of
operations, particularly during the peak seasons.
4. Millers should keep simple moisture meters to check grain moisture content before
milling.
5. Training of mill operators- Operation, repair and maintenance, grading.
SOME NEW INNOVATIONS IN RICE PROCESSING.
Innovation in Rice Processing Soft drying for high moisture paddy soft drying of paddy is a
quite new concept in which moisture transfer takes place from raw paddy to dry dusk
utilizing dry husk’s hygroscopic character without heat stress under normal temperature. The
running cost of soft drying is low because no heat is required, only aeration is done using
high capacity blowers. The storage tanks with mixing arrangements can be used for drying.
The process provides higher head yield due to no heat stress to grain as in sun drying or
mechanical drying. There is no cracking of grain due to drying. It is energy saving technique
because of no heavy mixing of paddy during drying. The drying of moistened paddy is
relatively simple as there is no quality concern. In the process, dry husks are likely to absorb
moisture from raw paddy moisture. Gradually, moisture contents of higher and lower get
balanced.
Bio polishing
Mechanical milling results in lower head rice yield with loss of major nutrients. To minimize
the loss incurred during mechanical milling and to resolve the problems associated with

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brown rice, a novel alternative polishing method has been attempted to bio-polish the rice
with some selected multi-enzymes having the catalytic properties to degrade the bran layer of
rice. The enzymes are the selective biocatalysts, which are very specific to their targeted
reactants. Thus through such processes the amount of by-product yield is minimum. These
enzymes can be
produced in large quantities through biotechnological route where different types of
bioreactors can be used. Depending upon the nature of fermentation process, the reactor
systems can be selected. Such bio-polishing has been carried out on germinated brown rice to
get softer, nutritious brown rice with the added benefits of germinated rice. The bio-polished
rice has been found to be superior in every aspect when compared to milled rice. The salient
features of bio-polishing are no loss in head rice yield, nutrient rich than milled rice, fibre
content more than milled rice, with benefits of germinated brown rice, softer with less
cooking time than brown rice, enzyme treated. rice has been found to have better shelf-life as
compared to the non-treated rice, enzymatically treated rice possessed higher antioxidant
potential , free amino acids, crude fibre and phenolics as compared to the non-treated rice.
There are many benefits of bio-polishing, such as mechanical damage to rice kernel can be
avoided, parboiling process can be skipped, nutrient loss or weight loss can be avoided,
selective bio-polishing has helped to retain the mineral with minor losses in Magnesium, Iron
and Zinc, while Calcium content increased by 10%, enzymatic treatment exhibited more
positive effect on water uptake ratio and volume expansion ratio, less cooking time, and
easier for digestion
Curing of high moisture paddy. The process of accelerated ageing in freshly harvested paddy
is called curing. Generally, newly harvested fresh rice cooks to pasty mass, whereas when the
process of ageing applied, the stickiness reduces and the cooking quality improves. The
curing of high moisture paddy yields partially parboiled rice and compares better in nutrition
than raw rice. It is also better in colour
and texture than the parboiled rice.

CHAPTER FOUR
POST-HARVEST DISTRIBUTION OF RICE.
In Nigeria, about 65% of the people, most of whom living under the poverty line, work in the
agriculture sector. Even though Nigeria is the largest rice producer in Africa, it relies on
imports for 40% of all rice consumption because domestic supply cannot meet the heightened
demand. The bottleneck to increasing domestic rice production is the lack of quality in post-
harvest processing technologies. Small stones and broken grains are often found in the rice,
which contributes to the lack of uniformity and consistency. The general inferior technology
of rice processing contributes to low price of rice compared to that of imports. Farmers and
processors are unable to improve their livelihoods because they do not earn enough income to
invest in better machinery and processing techniques.
The prospect of the rice business in Nigeria is very green for any investor who is currently
searching for a business to invest in. A business minded individual who is interested in
distribution or supply, should consider taking Rice distribution or supply as the special
business. There is hardly a household within Nigeria that doesn’t eat rice. This means that
there will be good returns on investment in this business. The importance of rice to an
average Nigerian can never be overemphasized.
Although the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr Akinwumi
Adesina recently claimed that “Nigeria would become Africa’s largest exporter of rice in five
years”, it is still a consuming economy with populace that eat tons of rice on a daily basis.
The Profit Potential

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Depending on your financial strength, you can start this business with 5 million naira or less.
Rice distribution business offers you a very good return on investment. For example,
50kg bag of regular seed of rice in retail price is sold for 8,200 naira, while the smaller seed
is about 8,100.
Now, consider the following profit potential of the business.
As a distributor or wholesaler, you can get a bag for N8,000, N8,100 or probably less from
the importers. If you supply 50 bags of rice in a day at the rate of 8,200 naira, you will be
making profit of 200 x 50= N10,000.

Here are some types of rice available in the country.

Ofada Rice
Ofada rice is a generic name used to describe locally produced rice considered by millions of
Nigerians as one of the best. It is produced in the southwest and southeast Nigeria. Compared
to others, the price is a bit on the high side, but the demand is high because nutritionists
believe that it gives more nutrients.

Stallion/Aroso
Stallion/Aroso rice is one of the largest and widely distributed rice worldwide, with high
qualities and special brands across the globe.
The following are some of the Stallion brands: Caprice, Tomatoes King, African Princess,
Caprice Gold etc. These are very common in the Nigeria markets.
Basmati Rice
This is another kind of rice that is very good and of high quality because of the production
process.

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The good news about this type is that it has a unique sensational taste, gluten free and
contains eight essential nutrients such as amino acid, sodium, folic acid, etc. It has a very
unique aroma that makes it stand out. It is mostly consumed in francophone African
countries.
Brown Rice
The brown rice is a whole grain with a mild, nutty flavor and chewier i.e it requires a lot of
chewing before it can be swallowed.
Brown rice is more nutritious than the white rice and it is mainly found in supermarkets or
mega supermarkets.
4 Things You Need to Start a Rice Distribution Business
In order to start and run a smooth distributor business, you need to get the following things in
place;
 A Supplier-: This should preferably be a rice farm because as the wholesale
distributor, you need to buy from a source where you can get the rice in very large
quantity and at the cheapest possible rate, so that you can still make profits after
spending for the logistics involved in getting the rice from the supplier to the retailers.
 Warehouse-: Most times, you don’t get to sell of the whole bulk of supply you get at
once to the retailers because there may be times when the market demand may be low,
that is when you need a warehouse to store your rice until you are ready to ship out to
retailers.
 Capital-: To become a wholesale distributor, you need to buy in very large quantity
from the rice farmers and sell in smaller bits to the retailers; so starting a rice
distribution business requires much capital. The only exception is if you have a
mutual understanding and agreement with the farmers where they supply you the
goods on credit sales, you sale to the retailers and pay them off as soon as you are
done with the sales.
 Transportation-: As the distributor, you may have to be in charge of transporting the
rice from the rice farm to your warehouse or delivery to customers when orders are
placed. You may need to get few trucks to handle the distribution process or you can
strike an agreement with a logistic company to take care of the transportation process.
With these four factors in place you are now set to start your distribution business. The next
subsection will be on how to start a rice distribution business.

REFERENCES
Brooker, D. B., Bakker-Arkema, F. W., Hall, C. W. 1992. Drying and Storage of grains and
oilseeds. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY.

De Padua, L. S., Bunyapraphatsarce, N. & Lemmens, R.H. M.J. (eds). 1999 Medicinal
and poisonous plants 1. PROSEA.

FAOSTAT. 2001. FAO Statistical Databases. Available online at [Link]/cgi-

bin/[Link]. Accessed Feb. 2002.
FAO. 2001. Workshop on policy support for rapid adoption of hybrid rice on large-scale
production in Asia, Hanoi, Viet Nam, 22-23 May. FAO Final Report, p. 10.

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