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Selected reprinted features onmechanization in rice farming
Special supplement for ARF Annual Rice Forum, 22 November 2013
www.irri.org
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ambodian farmers adopted IRRIs postharvest technology package, which improved the quality of their
ce grains, increased their harvests milling output, and allowed them to save on labor, time, and money
Machines ofprogress
byLanie Reyes andTrina Leah Mendoza
Asea of newly harvested rice
extends to the horizon in
Battambang Provincethe rice
bowl of Cambodia. It was only
e third week of February, just the
ginning of the harvesting sea son for
any Asian countries, but it seemed
e harvest time was already over in
attambang.
As we drove farther along the
y and dusty roads of the province, a
mbine harvester suddenly appeared
the horizon. It cut through the rice
alks almost as effortlessly as mowing
backyard lawn with an operator sitting
top of a lawn mower. This is a stark
ntrast to the traditional backbreaking
d tedious harvesting process, in whichrmers bend to gather and slash stalks
ing razor-sharp sickles. Some collect
d tie the stalks while others thresh, by
ting the rice plant on a piece of wood.
hen the farmers winnow the paddy and
the trash blow away from it.
Farmers chats to let their minds
ft away from the scorching sun and
e harrowing labor have been replaced
the whirring sound of the machine
aking its way through the rice elds.
The combine harvester, an iconic
image of farming in progressive
countries, is becoming the usual scene
in Cambodiaa hint that labor shortage
during harvest time is becoming a
serious problem for Cambodian farmers.
A dynamo of changeWhen Martin Gummert, an agricultural
engineer at the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI), visited
Cambodia for the rst time in 2001,
it reminded him of Vietnam in the
10s, when the mechanization of the
countrys agriculture was in its infancy.
Its postharvest technology was at a very
low stage. The milling industry was
mismatched and outdated, and therewas limited storage capacity. Though
there was a lot of poverty, I could sense
the excitement of people trying to leave
the past behind, grab every opportunity,
move on, and develop, recalled Engr.
Gummert.
Many years back, in 188, Harry
Nesbitt and Glenn Denning, two of
IRRIs agricultural scientists, went to
Cambodia to rebuild its rice production
and to breathe life back into the killing
elds, as the country was ravaged by
the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. (SeeTowering legaciesol. 1, No. 1 of Rice
Today.)
Since almost all traditional
knowledge on rice farming had been
lost, Drs. Nesbitt and Denning were
there to basically build a whole new
farming infrastructure and a system of
agricultural research for Cambodians to
carry on. In 2001, a newly established
Cambodian Agricultural Research
and Development Institute then took
overpart of the social context of
the dynamism, which Engr. Gummert
observed.
Wind of inspirationCambodias dynamic race to development
specically in rice production can
be attributed to the tenacity of the
Cambodians themselves. Their horrid
history during the Khmer Rouge, 0
years back, seems to have faded in the
background as they moved forward.
Pyseth Meas, a postharvest expert
on rice, is one of the members of the new
generation unfettered by the nations
challenging history. Instead, his past
has become his inspiration. He vividly
remembers growing up on a rice farm
with his father, who was a government
ofcial before Pol Pots regime. When
he lost his father during the war, his
mother raised him and his siblings by
selling rice. He witnessed his mothers
hard work and difculty selling milled
rice to consumers and traders. Like an
imprint on his young mind, he was drawn
to a profession that would ease the plight
of those who depended on rice, such as
his mother. Thus, he pursued a career in
postharvest technology.
I could see that this was where I
could contribute more to my country
knowing that 8 of the Cambodian
farmers are rice farmers, Dr. Meas
said. All of my life, Ive wanted to do
something for the Cambodian people,
especially the farmers, because we rely
on rice as our staple food and main source
of income. So, when I became involved in
a project on postharvest as a partner with
IRRI, I was more than happy.
In 200, the Postproduction Work
Group (PPWG) under IRRIs Irrigated
Rice Research Consortium, funded by
the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation, pooled its resources together
with the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
and the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction
(JFPR) to fund the project Improving
Poor Farmers Livelihoods through
Improved Rice Postharvest Technology. Itwas designed and initially led by Joseph
Rickman, who was then the head of t he
Agricultural Engineering Unit at IRRI.
When he moved to Africa in 200, ngr.
Gummert took the lead.
The projects goal was to
demonstrate to some villages in
Battambang and Prey Veng provinces
that improved harvesting, drying,
storage, and milling can help farmers
increase incomes from rice harvests and
improve the quality of grain and seeds
throughout the postharvest chain.
In February 200, farmers and rice
millers needs were assessed through
a survey. Hearing from the farmers
themselves, the project team was able
to determine that the farmers needed
dryers, especially during the rainy season,
when paddy quality was at a high risk
of deteriorating quickly, and combine
harvesters to solve the labor shortage.
The first line of defenseSince knowledge is the rst line of
defense in this caseagainst postharvest
lossesthe project team conducted a
trainers training in the same year to
share their knowledge and expertise on
improved postharvest options among
the staff of the provincial agricultural
extension services and their project
counterpart in Cambodia. In the second
half of 200 and 200, knowledge
and skills in postharvest technologies
smoothly cascaded to the farmers, as
these trainers visited a total of eight
villages. They taught and advis
farmers regarding grain and see
quality, and safe storage option
harvesting, threshing, cleaning,
hermetic storage, and milling.
Labor shortageJust like in other countries, the
generations in rural farming are
move to the cities to nd better j
With fewer hands, it is almost n
impossible to hold together the
the farm. Cultivating a hectare
according to Dr. Meas, needs
100120 person-days. And, abo
is spent on establishing the crop
another 0 for harvesting
Small machine, huge effectThen came the mini-combine h
also known as a mini-combine
simply combine. It fuses four o
(reaping, collecting, threshing,
cleaning) in one machine (see C
cutting costs in Cambodia, ol
on pages - ofRipple).
Rice TodayJuly-September 2010Rice TodayJuly-September 2010
CHRISQUINTANA
MARTIN GUMMERT, an agricultural engineer at IRRI,advocates better postharvest management to improvethe quality of rice and reduce losses caused byspoilage and pests. TR
INALEAHMENDOZA
THE USE of machinery is i mpeCambodia to become a rice expDr. Pyseth Meas (above left), aexpert on rice. Cambodian farmKimyorn (above right) said thause of a combine harvester, hethe crop on time, with less labless cost. Seum Kouy (left), a Prey Stor Village, Prey Veng, sawith an improved granary, her protected from rain, insects, brats.
LANIEREYES(3)
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When the team brought in this small
ntraption from Vietnam, they had two
asons in mind: one, to reduce the high
rvesting cost caused by a lack of labor
d, two, to increase the quality of the
ain.
After they showed how a mini-
mbine works to farmers in both
attambang and Prey Veng provinces,
mbines in different sizes have become
big hit.
Net Kimyorn of Boeng Pring Village
Battambang said, My elds are
eady less prone to accidents like re.
In Cambodia, it was common for
on-to-be-harvested rice to catch re,
used by lit cigarette butts thrown in
e rice elds. Since harvest time falls
ring the summer season, rice elds are
lnerable to res. Mr. Kimyorn recalled
re in his community in 1 when 8
ctares of rice elds were turned into
hes because a drunken man cooked rice
ar the elds. Lucky for Mr. Kimyorn,
s rice elds were spared.
Moreover, we can harvest the crop
time, with less labor, and at less cost,
r. Kimyorn said. And, we do not relythe climate anymore. Before, it took
most a month to harvest a crop. Now, it
kes only a few days. Less likely for rain
come while we are harvesting.
To manually harvest a hectare of
e eld, a farmer needs to hire at least
persons. The farmer pays each one
S per day or spends 100120 per
ctare. Aside from it taking longer, the
orkers would still need to gather the
op for threshing.
Hiring a combine harvester with
an operator, on the other hand, costs 0
100. Aside from the difference in cost,
grain quality is better, and it doesnt take
so much time. A large combine harvester
with a cutting width of 3 meters, for
example, can harvest a hectare in only an
hour.
Now, with less labor required in the
eld, Mr. Kimyorn and his family can
devote their extra time to other income-
generating activities such as shing and
selling noodles. Most of all, the family
can spend more quality time with each
other.
Competition benefits the farmersThere are even some cases wherein
farmers do not need to do much after
harvesting because, recently, buyers
from Vietnam and Thailand have been
purchasing rice directly from them.
According to Dr. Meas, though
these purchases are informal and are
not in good order, farmers benet much
from them. Without buyers crossing
the border, farmers rely mostly on rice
millers to buy their paddy. However, withcompetition, farmers can ask for a better
price.
This does not mean, however,
that drying is no longer needed. Some
farmers dry and store their rice, then
wait until the price is high before they
sell it. This is when the information
board greatly helps farmers. The use of
information boards, as part of the holistic
package of the PPWG of IRRI, gives up-
to-date reports on the rice prices in the
market, allowing farmers to plan the best
time to sell their rice.
In addition, most farmers set aside
an amount of rice for their familys food
until the next harvest and sell only the
surplus. Thus, they still need the benets
from the mechanical drying technology.
Flatbed dryersBringing technology to farmers is
important for them to see their options up
close. Thus, in 200, the team introduced
mechanical drying in Cambodia, by
installing the rst atbed dryer in Ballat
Village, Battambang, in collaboration
with the irrigators association.
When the farmers from the Po Chrey
community in Prey Veng heard about
the benets of using mechanical dryers,
they requested the project team to help
them install a mechanical dryer in their
village. The team assisted the community
by providing a blower and rice husk
furnace, while the farmers nanced and
installed the drying bin and the shed.
In early 2008, two dryers were
installed in Po Chrey community: one
was initially supported by the PPWG
and the other was set up by the private
company ABK in cooperation with the
community. Dryers became so in demand
that, by mid-200, the number of dryers
increased to nine. Now, the country
already has 11 known dryers.
Before, Koul Savoeun, just like other
farmers in Ballat Mancheay Village of
Battambang Province, had no idea about
moisture content. He relies only on his
gut feeling in determining whether the
paddy is dry or not. After learn ing about
moisture content, he noticed that his
grains became clean, had no bugs, and
had better quality.
According to Mr. Savoeun, after
milling, sun-dried rice is yellowish and
has more broken grains than rice dried
using the mechanical dryer. Since the
quality of the grains dried through a
mechanical dryer has improved, the price
has stepped up also, from 2 per bag to
2 per bag a bag contains 0 kilograms
of rice).
Mr. Savoeun added that they no
longer depend on the climate to dry their
paddy. They can dry their paddy even
during rainy days.
Storing the harvestEven if grains are properly dried, this
does not mean that farmers are free from
potential postharvest losses. In storage,
losses to insects, rodents, and birds are
estimated to be 10, according to
Engr. Gummert.
Rice stored in homes is as common
as a spirit house standing in each front
yard in Cambodia because a Khmer
family secures its rice consumption until
the next harvest. Others store grains to
sell when the price is at its peak.
Seum Kouy, a farmer in Prey Stor
Village, Prey Veng, said that with the
improved granarya technology also
promoted by the projecther grains are
protected from rain, insects, bird s, and
rats.
And, for grains stored as seeds,
IRRI provides the hermetic Super Bag,
which protects the germination ability of
the seed (see Fighting Asias postharvest
problems, ol. , No. 1 of Rice Today).
has more potential to go up. A
as I know, Thailand is already n
ceiling; I dont think it has mor
climb up, Dr. Meas added.
If the country will use mo
varieties along with improved i
infrastructure, let alone use pos
technologies, the country may e
its present rice production, Dr.
condently predicted.
Contribution to the countrys goIt is hoped that postharvest tech
will help Cambodia attain its go
to be a major exporter and doub
production in 201. For ngr. G
there are two ways in which be
postharvest management can co
to the countrys goal. First, Sou
Asia loses 12 of grains be
of spoilage and pests. Reducing
losses will contribute to the cou
rice output. The other area is ba
quality. Better quality directly
the ability to export rice becaus
become a major exporter, expl
Engr. Gummert, the country n
to produce quality consistently.
only by using advanced posthar
technology can this be attained
Cambodia cannot denitely
on manual labor if it wants to b
major exporter some day. Dr. M
explained that if a country, let u
Philippines, wants rice from Ca
it prefers only one or two variet
same variety ripens at the same
If manual labor is used to harve
difcult to maintain the grain q
and, because of labor shortages
impossible to harvest this varie
the same time. Some plants wil
mature, and others overripe.
If the rice is less mature, i
have less milling output; if it is
it will have a lot of breakage, D
explained. Therefore, use of mis imperative for Cambodia to b
exporter.
No doubt, combine harvest
atbed dryers, among other pos
technologies, are radically tran
how farmers farm in Cambodia
without saying that Cambodia i
toward efciency and modernit
strives to increase rice producti
leapfrogs to become a major ric
in Asia.
Plausible promiseADB has been funding a new project,
Bringing about a Sustainable Agronomic
Revolution in Rice Production in Asia
by Reducing Preventable Pre and
Postharvest Losses, since 200. It builds
on the pilot activities of the ADB-JFPR-
funded project, which ended in 2008,
and aims to reduce postharvest losses by
scaling out technologies that have been
proven effective.
With the success of postharvest
technologies in Cambodia, how did the
team know that the technologies were
mature enough to be released? I think
a technology is never mature enough to
be released, explained Engr. Gummert.
Its always a process; you have to start
with something. We call it a plausible
promise, wherein the technology has the
potential to solve a problem.
Vietnam has commercially produced
,000 mechanical dryers, being used in
counties in the Mekong Delta. For the
team, this is a hint that the technology
is sound and could also be applicable in
Cambodia. Hence, it became a starting
point to introduce the technology in
another country, rather than initiating a
research project to design a new dryer,
Engr. Gummert explained.
The combine was rst introduced as
mini or small. Its cutting edge of about
1 meter was just suited for small blocks
of rice elds. The reason was that it
was cheap and affordable, said Engr.
Gummert. We knew that it was limited
in terms of capacity and it is not the
technology that can treat all the needs of
farmers.
Now, farmers adapt the technology
to their needs. Since Cambodia has bigger
rice areas, medium 2-meter cutting width
and large combine harvesters (3-meter
cutting width) have been imported from
Thailand, Vietnam, and China.
Developing Cambodias potentialA United States Department of
Agriculture report in 200 says that
Cambodia aims to double its rice
production in 201 and become a major
exporter. According to Dr. Meas, the
country already has a surplus for export
even if its average rice production is
only 2. tons per hectare and it has poor
irrigation infrastructure only 1 of
its rice areas are irrigated). Thus, it
Rice TodayJuly-September 2010 Rice TodayJuly-September 2010
KOUL SAVOEUN, a Cambodian farmer, said that,because the quality of the rice grains dried through
a mechanical dryer has improved, he can sell them ata higher price.
RICE STORED inhomes is as commonas a spirit house inCambodia.
CAMBODIAN FARMERS rest under a treewhile waiting for the combine to loadrice on a truck.
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Rice TodayApril-June 2012Rice TodayApril-June 2012
The excitement of ricefarmers in Saint-Louis,Senegal, upon seeing anappropriate engine-driven
mall-scale thresher from Asiathe mid-1990s could not have
een far dierent from that of thest American president, eorge
ashington, in 1796, when he waspecting the rst horsepoweredreshing machine to arrive from
ondon. He described the newachine as one of the most valuablestitutions in this country; for
othing is more wanting and to beished for on our farms.
The Asian rice thresher,hich the Senegalese rice farmers
ppreciated, was sent by theternational Rice Research InstituteRRI) upon request by the Africace Center (AfricaRice). It waspected that this thresher could becally manufactured and mountedserve as an alternative to manualreshing.
he making of ASIhanks to an innovative partnershiprged between national andternational research and extensionganizations, local artisans, farmersganizations, and the private sector,
n improved rice thresher for the
negal River Valley (the principalne for irrigated rice in the country)as soon developed. Based on theRI prototype, it can reduce theudgery associated with handreshing and improve yield andarketability of rice.
ubstantial modications wereade to the original thresher,cluding doubling its c apacity,aking it more robust by usingurdier material, increasing itsocessing power, and adding two
wheels to make it a four-wheelversion.
Named ASI after the threemain partnersAfricaRice, theSenegal River Valley NationalDevelopment Agency (SAED), and theSenegalese Institute of AgriculturalResearch (ISRA)the thresher wentthrough several adaptations toensure that it met the requirementsof producers and women rice farmersengaged in threshing activities.
ASI was commercially releasedin Senegal in 1997. Since then, ASIhas become the most widely adopted
thresher in Senegal, with majorimpact on the rice production chain.A study showed that, with six
workers, ASI yields six tons of paddyper day vis--vis one ton by manualthreshing and four tons by Votex, thealternative small-scale thresher thatwas available in the Senegal RiverValley. Moreover, with a grain-strawseparation rate of 99%, no additionallabor is required for sifting andwinnowing compared to Votex,which could not properly separate
grains from straw after threshing.In other words, it reduces labor
requirements, freeing up familymembers, particularly women,for other useful tasks; speeds upthe postharvest process; allowsproduction of a higher qualityproduct with lower risk of damage;and increases the marketability oflocal rice in the face of imports.
Recognizing its immense valuefor the country as a technical solutionthat is acceptable to everyone in therice-growing community, includingwomen, the rand rix du rsident
de la Rpublique du ngal pourles ciences pecial rie of theresident of enegal for cienticResearch) was conferred in 2003 onthe ASI thresher team. The teamincluded AfricaRice Deputy Directoreneral arco Wopereis, who hadserved as an agronomist in the Saint-Louis Station of AfricaRice in the 90sand was closely involved in all thestages of ASIs development.
An impact study conducted byAfricaRice in Senegal 12 years later
in 2009 showed that ASI continuedto be one of the most importantimproved postharvest technologiesin the Senegal River Valley, helpingirrigated rice farmers to cope withlabor scarcity. For farmers, the ASIthresher is a time- and labor-savingdevice with a high grain recoveryrate.
Spreading across the regionAs ASIs popularity grew amongthe rice farming community andits impact continued to rippleoutward and change the lives of
rural households, the experience inSenegal was successfully extendedto several West African countriesCte dIvoire, Burina Faso, hana,Mali, Mauritania, etc.), where eachcountry further adapted the machineto suit its own specic conditions andreleased it under dierent brands.
ASI has recently spread toCentral African countries Cameroonand Chad. Here, the local artisans,who were trained by AfricaRice andpartners, were inspired to develop
Africa shifts from back-
reaking operations to
lmost labor-free threshing
bySavitri MohapaThe little machine that could
a series of modied prototypes forvarious crops. In 2011, the Chadgovernment gave ASI high praiseat the countrys 50th anniversarycelebration, where local ASI modelswere publicly displayed.
Why ASI clickedLabor is a serious concern in sub-Saharan African agriculture sincemany labor-intensive tasks in cropproduction are carried out manually.For example, rice threshing andcleaning are manually carried outpredominantly by women, who
spend hours on these back-breakingoperations. his not only aects theirhealth but also the grain quality andprotability of rice.
Field surveys carried out inthe 90s in the Senegal River Valleyrevealed that the lack of improvedpractices and machinery resulted inpostharvest rice crop losses of up to35% and poor grain quality due toinecient manual threshing.
The surveys also revealed otherconstraints, such as the frequent
shortage of labor during riceand postharvest periods andunsuitability of existing systwere too costly, time-consumlabor-intensive during peak demand. Consequently, paddsit in the eld for wees or evmonths waiting to be harvesthreshed; quality then deteribecause of exposure to the eand shaering.
Therefore, in response todemand from rice stake holdAfricaRice decided to adapt
introduce ASI in the region bcreating a coalition of partne
The partnership model mtechnology relevant. AfricaRnow using this model to forgpartnership and alliance to fdevelop rice harvest and postechnologies in sub-Saharan
Now, the Center is introdand adapting a small aordacombine harvester in the SenRiver Valley for timely harveand threshing. The adaptedprototype combine harvesteris under tests, not only harvesmall farm plots more quicklalso provides threshed and bgrain of high quality, makinaractive to local traders.
iven the examples of Aand the mini-combine harveintroduced by AfricaRice anits partners, a number of ricestakeholders from sub-SaharAfrica who met in July 2011 develop a road map for susta
mechanization of the rice secemphasized the value of smascale, locally adapted machinspecically targeting laboriactivities.
They also recommendedgovernments consult researcimporting machinery to ensuecacy and durability undefarming conditions, and thatbe built to provide after-salefor farm machinery. Thus, thcreated by ASI continue to ex
AN ASI thresher is beingused at the Institutd'Economie Rurale (IER),Niono, Mali.
PARTICIPANTS AT a meeting on Boostingagricultural mechanization in rice-basedsystems in sub-Saharan Africa, under theGlobal Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP),inspect a mini-combine prototype designedby a local manufacturer.
MARCOWOPEREIS,AFRICARICE
WITH SIX workers, manualthreshing yields only one tonper day, but, using an ASIthresher, it yields six tonsper day.
R.RAMAN,AFRICARICE(2)
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At rst, the atbed rice graindryer did not tae o inmost countries because ofthe highcost erosene
eled burner. Its ton dryingpacity per batch was too big for
mall farmers and too small for themmercial sector.
It was only in ietnam where thechnology was successfully adapted,ans to a version modied by ongm niversity . By ,ound , dryers with to tonpacity were installed in the eongelta, all using rice hus as fuel.eighboring ao R, Cambodia,d yanmar had no dryers at that
me. Indonesian dryers mostlystalled by the government were not
ing used. And, only a few dryerssed on the ietnamese design wereed in the hilippines.
he International Rice Reasearchstitute IRRI began woring with, national partners, and privateaeholders in to introduce thetbed dryer in outheast Asia.
yanmarr. yo Aung yaw from theoneer ostharvest evelopment
roup H and r. in o,a manufacturer, participated in anIRRIorganied dryer manufacturingtraining by in .
After the training, they installedthe rst pilot unit in yanmar,which spared the production andinstallation of dryers at rice mills andwith farmers groups. By , morethan dryers had been installed bythe H, by r. in o, a nd by others who had copied thedesign.
he ioneer postharvest teamconrms that , farmers arebeneting from the dryers that theyhave installed, and about ,farmers are already beneting frommore than dryers in the country.
IndonesiaIn the tidal lands of outh umatra,lowquality discolored rice wascommon because of delays inhandling and drying. his wascaused by shortages in laborand poor postharvest facilities.hen, ARI, a machinerymanufacturer in ava, introduceda erosenefueled atbed dryer inouth umatra in . nfortunately,
users abandoned the dryer because ofrising fuel costs.
In , a ricehusred dryerwith .ton capacity was developedby the Indonesian Center for RiceResearch in uamandi, andintroduced in outh umatra by theAssessment Institute for Agriculturalechnology in alembang. IRRIhelped by transferring a biggerand more ecient fan to a localmanufacturer in alembang. Come, around dryers wereinstalled in outh umatra, mainly byrice millers. Four local worshops arenow producing dryers there, with oneshop in alembang already mainggoodquality dryers.
In , IRRI provided additional
training on blower testing andmanufacturing of an improved ricehus furnace.
The Philippinesost Filipino farmers rely on thesun to dry their grain, but now theyface quality problems because ofunpredictable weather.
In the past few years, thehilippine Rice Research InstitutehilRice wored with to bring
Millions of Asian farmers struggled with poor-quality sun-dried grain until a mechanical
ated drer adatae t the trics as deveed in the hiiines in the s
Martin Gummert andTrina Leah Mendoza
Eclipsing the sun:
atbed dryers
Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013
MARTINGUMMERT
of the dryers adapted designuse of rice hus as fuel, as wefacilitation of technology trasupport to local manufacture
ach country had localchampions who drove thetechnologies even beyond prhorions. ultistaeholder psuch as learning alliances hein lining actors across sectocapturing the learning, and mavailable for others.
All these were ey ingrethat helped move atbed dryietnam across outheast As
r. ert is a stharvest eand Ms. Mendoza is a communspecialist at IRRI.
r a reated vide at the fadrer in adia see hdsRe
in the secondgeneration atbeddryer with reversible airow fromietnam to the hilippines.
IRRI supported a part icipatoryverication of the initial units of thesedryers through the Irrigated RiceResearch Consortium IRRC andan Asian evelopment Ban ABfunded postharvest proect. And, thehilippine epartment of Agriculturefunded units installed at hilRicestations.
hese dryers are now distributedto end users through hilRice and apostharvest learning alliance. Bothserve as platforms in which thedryers can be evaluated in a businessmodel context with end users andsupporting institutions such asnongovernment organiations, localgovernment units, and IRRI.
Cambodiahe need for mechanical dryersin Cambodia sprang from theproliferation of combine harvesters inthe country.
ow, with around ,combines being used, large amounts
of grain harvested need to be dried.un drying is no longer suitable seeMachines of progress, ol. , o. ,pages to of Rice Today. hus,the ABIRRI proect transferred theatbed dryer from ietnam to a localmanufacturer in Cambodia.
From one demonstration unitinstalled with a farmers group in, Cambodia now has hundreds ofatbed dryers. he private sector hasrealied the benets of mechanical
drying and several companies haveinvested in the tech nology. ou imean, a rice miller who partneredwith the proect, has now designed arecirculating batch dryerthe nextlevel of the technology. In , IRRItested the dryer and assisted him incoming up with an improved secondversion.
Key ingredientsrevious aempts to introducemechanical dryers for rice have failedbecause of unsuitable technologies,high fuel costs, and marets thataccepted sundried paddy without aprice penalty.
However, increased harvestvolumes and marets becoming morequalityconscious pushed the needfor mechanical dryers in outheastAsia over the last decade.
Within a few years, neighboringcountries adopted the dryers because
PHILIPPINE RICE ResearchInstitute engineers demonstratethe reversible flatbed dryer tofarmers in Agusan del Norte,Philippines.
NOU KIM Sean (right), farmer andchairman of the Pursat Rice MillersAssociation, adopted the technologyand built a recirculating batch dryerwith 12-ton capacity.
AN IRRI technician assists ininstalling a privately owned flatbeddryer with rice husk-fueled furnaceat the foot of Mt. Sierra Madre inCagayan Valley, Philippines.
Rice TodayJanuary-March 2013
TRINA LEAHMENDOZA
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8 Rice TodayApril-June 2012Rice TodayApril-June 2012
Anumber of examples iAfrica tell stories of hfarmers have successf
adopted small-scale equipmwhich is now being manuflocally.
The model of adoptiongenerally been the same. Oa suitable machine is identit is tested under a range olocal conditions, modied necessary, promoted by thgovernment, and then linklocal entrepreneur.
The use of locallymanufactured mechanicalthreshers in Senegal is onegood example (see story on30-31). When this eq uipmeimported from the InternaRice Research Institute in tPhilippines was brought toAfrica, the government, towith the Africa Rice Centea local manufacturer, extenits use to the broader farmcommunity. Now, more thaof these thre sherswhichbeen adapted to local condare being used in Senegal.
In Tanzania, more tha600 two-wheel tractors, whwere imported from Thailare now being widely usedrice production. Local dealin Dar es Salaam support ttractors by supplying sparparts and training operatoin using and maintaining equipment. In Madagascarlocally manufactured mecweeders have been adoptewidely. These weeders weroriginally imported from Aare now being fabricated lo
In all of these cases, adand promotion have been bon sound business principwithout government subsi
byJoseph Rickman
Small equipment:
A big hit in Af
Afarmers life has neverbeen an easy one.Before farmers canreap the full benet of
eir harvest, they have to do manynergy-sapping tasks: plowing,anting, irrigating, weeding,
arvesting, threshing, transporting,nd storing.
Traditionally, most activities onmall rice farms require long hours
work, using a lot of family labor or
nergy. Studies show that, for eachn of rice produced, more than 7,000egajoules of energy are needed,hether provided by humans orachines.
In physical terms, work or energya function of force and distance.
he more force you need to apply orstance you need to travel, the more
nergy is required. The faster youcomplish this, the more power you
xert. When humans or animals workthe eld, the problem is that theyn supply only a nite amount of
nergy at a given time. When they getred, eciency drops and so does theuality of work.
Are machines the answer?lthough humans and animals havemited energy over time, machinesont get tired, and they can get the jobone much faster without sacricinguality of work.
For instance, to plow a hectarequires persondays to nish,
2 days when animals are used, aay with a 2-wheel tractor, and 12ours with a 4-wheel tractor. Theme amount of energy of about 1,500egajoules is required to do the job.
he dierence is in the time.Aside from time, labor cost
hould also be considered. Using aachine or hiring a contract service
rovider is cheaper. The cost forne-pass plowing using animals, awheel tractor, or a 4-wheel tractor
byJoseph Rickman andPaula Bianca Ferrer
is US$4050 per hectare dependingon the locality while manual laborcosts more than $200 per hectare,and the ob done is no beer than themechanical output anyway.
In terms of harvesting, handharvesting and threshing cost$100120 per hectare and handcuing with mechanical threshingcosts about $80 per hectare, which issimilar to combine harvesting thatcosts $80100 per hectare.
When a machine is introducedinto a farming system, it often bringswith it other benets. he engine canbe used as a power source for othermachines such as threshers, waterpumps, and electricity generators.Moreover, a farmer who owns amachine such as a 2-wheel tractor orthresher can do contract service workfor other farmers.
Technical loopholesGood management andunderstanding of the machineand the farming environmentare all critical and should not beoverlooked. For example, whenmechanical threshers were broughtto Mozambique from Asia, all hadbroken down with mechanicalproblems within 2 months. The causeof the problem was that farmers hadalways cut the straws long enough foreasy grip when they manually ailedthem over a drum to release thegrain. However, mechanical threshersrequire short straws to be ecient.
Another problem encounteredwas that the farmers normally lefttheir rice crop in the eld until themoisture dropped to 1516%, whichmade it easier for threshing. Themechanical threshers, however, were
t takes sound business
rinciples and planning to
ntroduce farm equipment
n a sustainable way
designed to thresh grains at 2022%moisture, which not only gets thecrop out of the eld wees earlierbut also gives higher grain yield of abeer quality. Farmers who were notused to managing grain with highmoisture thus faced a problem. Thisresulted in a s econd technology, solargrain drying, which could dry thegrain to 14% moisture for safe storage.
The biggest lesson here is that itsvery important to analyze the entireproduction chain before introducingnew equipment.
Gears in placeIn rice-producing countries wheremechanization is at an early stage,many nuts and bolts have to bein place to develop a sustainableindustry. Experiences from Asiaand from some parts of Africa
indicate that farm equipment canbe introduced in a sustainable waythrough sound business principlesand planning. Governments,training institutes, internationalorganiations, s, nancialinstitutions, and the private sector allhave a role to play.
The governments main roleis in the importation and testingof new equipment, as well as inthe development of import and taxpolicies that support importers,dealers, and local manufacturers.Vocational training institutes needto develop curricula that focus onmechanization and can provide bothtechnical and basic business planningand training for operators, mechanics,and artisans. xtension oces andNGOs need training to extend andsupport mechanized agriculture.Credit institutions need to beencouraged to structure loans to suitfarmers and contract service suppliers.
Most importantly, there must bechampions for rice mechanizationwho will link to all the stakeholdersand who must be supported by thegovernment to drive the processfrom introduction to adoption.
Mr. Rickman is an IRRI senior scientistand regional coordinator for East andSouthern Africa.
JOSEPHRICKMAN(8)
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Rice TodayOctober-December 2013
With her tiny fra me, blunt-cut bangs, and trendyoutts, yearoldTruong Thi Thanh Nhan
looks more like a school girl thana farmer. Nhan earned her degreein software programming from theUniversity of Science in Ho Chi MinhCity, ietnam, in . But, aftergraduation, she agreed to her parentswishes to oversee their family farmin Dak Lak Province in VietnamsCentral Highlands.
In ecember , han startedthe daunting task of managingtheir almost hectares of land. hestarted planting rice twice a year on hectares of their farm. nce a year,Nhan also grows maize and pumpkinon hectares each. Although herfamilys farm is located on a steepslope, bringing water into the eldwas easy because the eld was nextto a water canal. It was managing thewatermaking sure that higher areaswere reachedthat was the problem.Most of the rice plants in higher areasdie because they laced sucientwater. She had no choice but to hiremany laborers to replant the eld.
A flair for laserIn early , han chanced upon ashow on a Vietnamese TV channelthat featured rice farmer Nguyen Loiuc from ri on istrict, An iangProvince. She found herself glued tothe channel as Nguyen was sharinghis experiences and the benetsfrom laser leveling his hectareeld. With her interest piqued, shesearched the Internet to learn moreabout the tech nology.
With laser leveling, a transmierplaced at the side of the eld sendsa laser beam to a receiver, which is
aached to a leveling bucet drawnby a tractor. Then, a control panelmounted on a tractor interprets thesignal from the receiver and opensor closes a hydraulic valve, whichin turn raises or lowers the bucket.The bucket then drags and drops soilacross the eld to mae it even.
Nhan, together with her family,visited Nong Lam University (NLU)in Ho Chi Minh City. They werebriefed on the technology by NLU
Laser-guided
dreamsuong Thi Thanh Nhan doesnt look like a t ypical farmer, but
he is proving to be a powerful "engine" for growth in Vietnams
rming communities
Story and photos by
Trina Leah Mendoza
Rice TodayOctober-December 2013
sta member ran an hanh, aprincipal lecturer on agriculturalmachinery, and hung Anh inhTruong, a researcher who becamehans husband in and nowhelps her manage the farm.
ngr. hanh emphasiedthe benets of the technologyand assured Nhans family thatthe International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI) also providestechnical support. Nhans familywas convinced anddecided to buy laser-leveling equipmentand a drag bucketfrom a Saigon-baseddistributor, IdealFarming Corporation.
Loads of benefits
They began usinglaser leveling in theirrice-growing area.Now that 9 hectaresof our rice eld havebeen laser-leveled,the benets havebeen tremendous,anh says. We saveon water becausewe dont need topump more water toreach the once-highareas. With even water coverage, thecrops are healthy and thrivingandwe dont need to hire laborers forreplanting.
Laser leveling their land hadother benets too. Fertilier is nowspread evenly among the crop,saving as much as 77 kilograms perhectare. Pests, which used to hide inuneven spots, can no longer do so,resulting in less pesticide applied.Weed control is also easier. Herbicide
spraying has been reduced to one,before the emergence of rice, unlikebefore when they sprayed herbicidetwice during the season. The yieldfrom the laserleveled eld duringthe dry season, from January toay , was higher at . tons perhectare compared with . tons perhectare for the unleveled eld.
he laserleveling equipment,however, is subject to wear and tear.Nhans husband, Truong, shares
that the usual challenges they facewith laser leveling have more to dowith xing the equipment when itbreaks down.It usually takes a weekto repair the system, and Truong,being an agricultural engineer byprofession, does it on his own intheir workshop. However, since theylive in a rural area where powershortages are common, repairingbroen equipment taes more timeand eort.
postharvest technologies orgaby the Asian evelopment BanPostharvest Project.
A role modelAlthough han is not a typicaVietnamese farmer, she hasmanaged to turn their farm inproductive and ecient businBut, many people are surpriseby Nanhs decision to be a farmThey do not understand why a
young lady likwith a backgroin softwareprogramming prestigious unwould want toback to agricul
For Nhan,was no surpris
Her parents bogrew up on farand agriculturpart of their fatradition. ointo her roots maher happy andis optimistic abher future. Shethat, with a negeneration of flike her, it willpossible to cha
general perception of farmingNowadays, young people
that farmers are old-fashionedand lack social standing, and treturning to the farm is a last osays Nhan. I am a smart, youndynamic person, and even thoam a farmer living in an area wmany comforts and I face diwith nances and managing pI know that I am on the right ptoward a stable income and a
sustainable future.I am contributing to food
sustainability for my region ancountry, which young people nrarely do. And, I have my famithank for helping me be the farthat I am now.
Ms. Mendoza is a senior communspecialist with the Irrigated Rice RConsortium at IRRI.
Spreading the wordBut, overall, ahns decision topurchase the equipment is provingto be a very wise one. As theneighboring farmers witnessed theimprovements on Nhans rice farm,it wasnt long before they sought herhelp. She already provided laser-leveling services to one far mers.hectare rice eld in ecember and she has plans to do more.
After I nish leveling our
hectares of rice farm and ourmaize farm, we plan to rent out ourequipment to other farmers, not onlyfor rice but for other crops as well,says Nhan.
Nhan is now also on amission. An advocate of laserleveling technology, she sharesher experiences in adopting laserleveling with representatives fromboth the public and private sectorduring meetings and seminars on
NHAN AND her husband Khanh arechanging farming practices and theimage of farmers in Vietnam.
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Rice TodayApril-June 2011 Rice TodayApril-June 2011
Few countries in Asia are
familiar with precision land
leveling or laser land leveling,
but, in India, the technology
s already been adopted in many
ates and it has almost become an
dispensable tool in agriculture.
hrough laser land leveling, farmers
e able to save water and reduce their
igation cost because laser-leveled
lds, unlike traditionally leveled elds,
ow better water coverage and more
cient irrigation.
Around 7,000 Indian farmers now
wn 10,000 laser land levelers and close
1 million hectares of land in India have
en laser-leveled.
For traditional agricultural
actices of the rice-wheat farming
stem, pump irrigation is common,
ys Raj Gupta, regional facilitator of
e Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC) for
e Indo-Gangetic Plains. Electricity
nsumption from pumping underground
ater can reach 800 kilowatts per hectare
r year and leveling the land could help
ve up to US$65 million annually.
Laser leveling allows us to use
ore efciently water that, at times,
comes scarce, he added. Also,
mpared with unleveled or traditionallyveled elds, laser-leveled elds can
ve 18 centimeters of water. With about
million hectares of land that has been
er-leveled, this translates to 2 cubic
ometers of water savedroughly the
ze of a lake that is 2 kilometers long, 1
ometer deep, and 1 kilometer wide.
Laser leveling not only allows
en distribution of water so that it can
used more efciently but it also leads
better nitrogen-use efciency, which
Bianca Ferrer
helps give us a much better crop stand,
he concludes.
Leveling the land using laser
systems has also become a source of
income for farmers as they rent the units
to fellow farmers at 500 rupees ($1) an
hour. Sometimes, these farmers hire out
the system to three to four other farmers
to level their elds, working in shifts.
The laser land levelers give the farmers
an extra source of income aside from
helping increase their productivity, cites
Dr. Gupta.
Farmers in India enjoy benets
similar to those enjoyed by farmers in
Pakistan, from where Dr. Gupta and his
colleagues from the RWC rst stumbled
upon the technology.
In 2002, the RWC team visited
farmers elds in Pakistan. During the
eld trip, they saw elds that had been
laser-leveled. We got good feedback
from the farmers, explains Dr. Gupta.
They liked laser leveling very much
because it helped them save water, get
extra income from renting out the units
to other farmers, and increase their
productivity. So, we decided to introduce
laser land leveling in India.
In the same year, a laser land-
leveling unit was supplied by Spectra
Precision, Inc., a dealer in Hyderabad,
India, and was brought to a farmers eld
in Haryana for testing. However, the
technology was not a success because the
system buckled and was taken back forfurther improvements. It did, however,
provide two important lessons: that
the units automatic hydraulic scraper
bucket should be assembled with locally
available materials and that local service
providers had to be able to handle defects
in their small workshops.
After the rst unsuccessful attempt,
the RWC asked Joseph Rickman, an
agricultural engineer at the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI), to
develop a hydraulic scraper bucket for
a 50- to 60-horsepower tractor that was
tted with a laser land-leveling unit. As
he had gained much experience from his
projects in Cambodia and Thailand, Mr.
Rickman developed an automatic scraper
bucket with Beri Udyod Ltd., a local
manufacturer, which offered him free
use of its workshop facilities. As a result,
they were able to build the hydraulic
scraper bucket using local automobile
components and they connected it to a
tractor-driven land-leveling unit.
The machine was tested on a farm
in Karnal Province and the results were
encouraging. This then led to a larger
demonstration and a training workshop at
the Indian Agricultural Research Institute
in New Delhi, where about 200 agr iculture
professionals, service professionals, and
local manufacturers attended.
Through an initiative to promote
laser land leveling in northern India,
similar to Spectra Precision, Inc., in
southern India, another manufacturer
came onto the scene and forayed into
manufacturing units that copied the
hydraulic scraper bucket from Beri and
used a locally-procured control valve
mechanism. Competitive manufacturing
was born with Leica Geosystems and
Beri producing the same units and nine
other suppliers that came on board later.
In 2005, the Atomic Energy
Commission in India also developed
a prototype of a laser land leveler but,
although it was successfully developed
using locally-available materials, it failed
to be mass-produced. Meanwhile, Indias
private sector also developed prototypes
of laser land levelers and, at the same
time, through contacts with foreign
suppliers, imported other units from the
U.S. to India.
Many on-farm demonstrations,
eld days, and training workshops took
place. Units were produced in Karnal,Ludhiana, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar
by 2006 so the technology could reach
farmers elds more effect ively. One of
the farmer-service providers, Ranjeet,
together with his brother, undertook more
than 200 eld demonstrations in Bihars
12 districts covering West Champaran to
Purnea from 2007 to 2008.
Through subsidies provided by the
state governments of Haryana, Punjab,
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and others, farmers
aser land leveling is
ast changing the face
f traditional farming in
outh Asia
were soon able to purchase their own
units, which they also rented out to
other farmers. A cooperative in Patna
and Samastipur districts in Bihar called
the Primary Agriculture Credit Society,
along with a farmers seed village in
Begusarai, promoted laser land leveling
together with their other resource-
conserving technologies.
The Department of Agriculture
in Bihar also bought ve units of laser
land levelers for demonstrations in
2008-09. During the same years, Dr.
Apurba Chowdhury and his team from
Uttarbanga Agriculture University
procured three units of laser land levelers
in Kochbehar and Dakshin Dinazpur for
farmer participatory trials.
Moreover, Dr. Paritosh Bhattacharyya
from the West Bengal Department of
Agriculture took seven more units of laser
land levelers to different districts of West
Bengal. This then became a collaborative
effort with the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research.
The experiences gained in farmers
elds helped further improve laser land
levelers. Punjab Agriculture University
also took the initiative of modifying
the hitch system for the scraper bucket,
allowing it to improve its turning radius
by 27% and the maneuverability of
tractors in small elds.
Another innovation made on the
machine was the addition of a quick-
release hydraulic coupler that enabled it
to be attached to or detached from the
Even grounds tractor. This helped free the tracthe laser land leveler was not inrestored the tractor to being a m
vehicle. This led to a total of 20
to Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab,
and western Uttar Pradesh.
Since then, more improvem
made on the leveling unit such a
double wheels to it to reduce the
the tractor, which increased the
capacity by 25%. An improvem
that included a powered mast fo
elevation setting of the receiver
enhanced mast-receiver control
laser land levelers but also boos
and tractor efciency during lev
Like in India, where the te
started with one unit, but has no
to 10,000 units, farmers in Ban
and Nepal, where the technolog
introduced in 2008, are also kee
purchase more, says Dr. Gupta
Each country now owns thr
and the technology has been intr
in the Cereal Systems I nitiative
Asia, a collaborative project amo
IRRI, the International Maize an
Improvement Center, the Interna
Food Policy Research Institute,
International Livestock Researc
With joint efforts among organizations and Consultativon International Agricultural centers, laser land leveling co
become an indispensable tooagriculture in Bangladesh andholding lots of promise for fa
A LASER land leveler plows a field in thevillage of Matiala, western Uttar Pradesh.
RAJGUPTA,
RWC(3)
VILLAGERS HELP a local service provider,who rents out a laser land leveler tofarmers, do land surveys.
USAID AGRICULTURAL advisor Robert Be(right) tests a laser land-leveling unit wIndian agronomist R.K. Naresh (left).
8/13/2019 Mechanization Rice Today Features
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n Asia, where about 90% of rice is
grown, hundreds of millions of rural
poor grow rice on less than a hectare
of land.
Producing affordable rice for the
or has been a challenge for the last 50
ars. During the 2008 rice price crisis,
anges in rice availability and price
used social unrest in some developing
untries. The International Rice
search Institute (IRRI) estimates that
additional 810 million tons of rice
ed to be produced each year to keep
e prices stable.
The challenge now is to grow more
e with less land, less water, and less
bor amidst climate change.
egional approach to food security1997, the Swiss Agency for
evelopment and Cooperation (SDC)
gan funding the Irr igated Rice
search Consortium (IRRC), which
ovides a platform for partnership in
search and extension in the intensive
wland irrigated rice-based production
stems.
Initially, the IRRC focused on
egrated pest management (IPM)
d nutrient management. However,
nce 2002, the IRRCs research has
atured water-saving technologies, labor
stainability (including direct seeding
d weed and rodent management),
stharvest management, crop health
tiatives, and, recently, climate change11 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia,
hina, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR,
yanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam,
d the Philippines.
The IRRC develops partnerships to
entify the needs of rice farmers and
tential solutions to their problems,
d to facilitate the adoption of suitable
chnologies. It provides a range of
chnologies for rice farmers and other
akeholders in Asia to improve their
per hectare. In 2009 alone,
partners reporte d 120,000
farmers adopting AWD.
The private sector
promotes AWD by
producing tubes that are
used to monitor water
levels in the eld. lthough
thousands of farmers are
practicing AWD in the
country, a 2010 adoption
study reported that, with
millions of farmers still to
be reached, adoption is in
its infancy.
Around 40,000 farmers
in Vietnam are practicing
AWD, and more farmers
are expected to be reached through a
new IRRC-An Giang Department of
Agriculture and Rural Development
initiative: the One Must Do, Five
Reductions Program. In 2010, Lao PDR,
Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand
started or successfully demonstrated
AWD.
Personalized precision farmingMost farmers lack knowledge on the
most effective use of fertilizer. They
either apply too much or too little, or
apply it at the wrong time. Too much
nitrogen fertilizer leads to increases
in diseases and pests, damage to the
environment, and lo prot. or more
than a decade, IRRI soil scientist Roland
Buresh, leader of the IRRC Productivity
and Sustainability Work Group, has been
working with partners in Asia to provide
site-specic nutrient management
(SSNM) practices for rice.Since 2003, correct fertilizer timing
and application rates have greatly
increased farmers yields compared with
traditional practices. Yield increases
from adopting SSNM have improved
net returns by $100 to $300 per hectare
per year in China, India, Indonesia,
Vietnam, and the Philippines. An impact
assessment study on SSNM in the Red
River Delta in Vietnam revealed a 2%
and 3% increase in net present values for
smallholder farmers in Ha Tay and Ha
Nam provinces, respectively. Farmers
who used SSNM reported a reduced use
of pesticides.
Encouraging farmers to use SSNM
has been a challenge because it is
knowledge-intensive and many factors
need to be considered, such as crop yield
and the use of organic materials. This has
slowed down farmers adoption of these
improved practices.
But, this speed bump did not slow
down Dr. Buresh and his group, who
looked for ways to make their science
simpler for the farmers. The leaf color
chart (LCC) was developed as a tool for
farmers to assess the nitrogen needs of
their crop. In Bangladesh, an estimated
600,000 farmers use LCCs, which has
increased the efciency of urea fertilier
use, enabling farmers to harvest more
rice with less expense for purchased
fertilizer.Farmers learned about the use of
potassium and phosphorus fertiliz ers,
and gained new knowledge on other
micronutrients. They were able to save
$25 per hectare in production costs and
harvested higher yields.
In 2008, SSNM principles were
packed into a computer-based decision-
making tool calledNutrient Manager
for Rice. A farmer or extension worker
only needs to answer about 15 questions
and, within 510 m
a fertilizer guidelin
provided for a eld
Web and mobile ph
versions were deve
in the Philippines. W
applications of the
Manager are now a
for Guangdong, Ch
Indonesia, while ap
for Bangladesh, Vi
southern India, and
Africa are under w
Saving labor and wIn the Indo-Ganget
which covers most
northern and easte
and almost all of Bangladesh, f
face rising costs, waning produ
worsening soil health, and labo
shortages, as many people mov
cities to nd or. armers dep
the monsoon rains, and they can
if the rains come too late.
Led by IRRI weed scientis
Johnson, the IRRC Labor Produ
and Community Ecology Work
promotes direct seeding of rice
alternative way to establish a cr
direct seeding, pregerminated s
are son directly into a nonoo
saturated eld, using a drum se
Direct seeding allows quic
preparation, and farmers can sa
in labor costs and 30% in water
It takes 50 person-days to trans
hectare of rice, but it takes only
days to directly seed using a dru
seeder.
Direct-seeded rice maturesdays earlier, allowing farmers t
other crops earlier. In a partners
with Indias Ramakrishna Miss
2010, direct seeding (wet or dry
farmers elds helped the early
of autumn and winter paddy, pr
new opportunities for improved
cropping practices through earl
of planting, new cultivars, and n
An earlier winter rice harvest m
earlier potato planting and a lar
Technologies meet farmers byTrina Leah Mendoza andGrant SingHundreds of thousands of Asian farmers are adopting a range of IRRC-facilitated
echnologies because of the many impressive economic, social, and environmental benefits
Rice TodayOctober-December 2011Rice TodayOctober-December 2011
livelihoods and increase rice production
to maintain food security.
Hundreds of thousands of Asian
farmers are now adopting these
technologies because of impressive
economic, social, and environmental
benets. This article eamines some of
these successes.
More rice, less waterIrrigated lowland rice is usually grown
under ooded conditions, and ept
ooded to help control eeds and pests.
However, researchers found that riceneeds to be continuously ooded only at
the oering stage. Through alternate
wetting and drying (AWD), a water-
saving practice, elds can be dried
for 110 days before being re-ooded.
Farmers can save 1530% of water and
still harvest the same yields. The water
saved can be used to irrigate more elds,
thus increasing overall production. If
AWD were to be adopted all across
Asia, the amount of water saved in one
year would equal 200 times the water
consumption of Paris for a year.
The IRRC Water-Saving Work
Group led by IRRI water scientist Ruben
Lampayan began studying AWD with
Philippine partners and farmers in
several national irrigation systems in
2002. In 2009, the Philippine government
approved the endorsement of AWD for
nationwide adoption. By July 2011, more
than 80,000 Filipino farmers had adopted
AWD.
Introduced in Bangladesh in
2004, AWD is now being promotedby government and nongovernment
agencies. The secretary of the Ministry of
Agriculture endorsed AWD in 2009, and
directed the governments Department
of Agriculture and Extension (DAE)
to promote the technology nationwide.
Along with other agencies, the DAE
promoted AWD in over 50 districts in
2010. Field studies reported a decrease
in pumping cost and fuel consumption,
and an increased income of US$6797
A FARMER in Myanmar directly seedshis rice crop using a drum seeder.
DAVIDJOHNSON
A FARMER from Vinh Phuc Province,Vietnam, uses the leaf color chartto check the nitrogen needs of hisrice crop.
T.T.SON
6
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Rice TodayOctober-December 2011Rice TodayOctober-December 2011
rvest, and reduced fungicide usage and
ought risk.
In northwest Bangladesh, direct
eding combined with shorter duration
e varieties, appropriate weed
anagement, and crop diversication is
lping to ease monga, a seasonal hunger.
ch year, farm workers suffer fromongafrom September to November as
ey wait for the wet-season harvest.
In monga-affected districts of
angpur and Nilphamari, farmers who
rectly seeded their rice got higher net
urns in both the wet and dry seasons.
elds of directly seeded crops in the wet
ason were higher by 493 kilograms
r hectare, and total production costs
ere lower by $47 per hectare than on
rms with transplanted rice. Planting of
tato, maize, and wheat on time in the
y season allowed farmers to sell their
ops at higher prices, because they were
le to harvest earlier when supply in the
arket was still relatively low. On-time
anting of these dry-season crops also
sulted in better yields. Net incomes
farmers who directly seeded during
e wet and dry seasons were higher by
41 per hectare than for farmers who
nsplanted.
With the earlier harvest of the
rectly seeded rice crop in the wet
ason, 5559 person-days per hectare
n potentially be hired during
rvesting, thus easing the problem of
employment.
ologically based rodent managementis not uncommon for farmers to
se half of their entire crop to rats,
cause rat damage is usually patchy
d family rice plots are small, says
ant Singleton, IRRC coordinator and
dent expert. Surprisingly, only 10% of
e many different species of rodents are
sts in agriculture. The challenge is to
develop ways to control the pests without
greatly affecting those that are benecial
in our environment.
Farmers are adopting a simple,
environment-friendly community
method called ecologically based rodent
management (EBRM). With EBRM,
farmers are encouraged to conduct
control methods as a community, such as
planting synchronously and hunting rats
together. EBRM reduces rodent damage
by 3350%, and increases rice yield by
25%. It also reduces rodenticide use by
6290%.
EBRM has been adopted as the
national policy for rodent management
in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar. It
also was recently included in a national
integrated crop management program in
Indonesia, which was promoted through
50,000 farmer eld schools in 2009 and
2010.
The impact of rodent outbreaksin different parts of the world was
highlighted in the 2010 bookRodent
outbreaks: ecology and impacts,
published by IRRI.
Reducing postharvest lossesAsian rice farmers lose 3050% of
their earnings from harvest to market.
IRRI postharvest specialist Martin
Gummert leads the IRRC Postproduction
Work Group in tackling problems on
postharvest losses by providing best
practices and technologies to farmers and
other stakeholders. Since 2005, activities
have been funded by SDC and the Asian
Development Bank.
The mechanical at-bed dryer,
which produces better quality rice
than sun drying, was introduced in
Cambodia, Myanmar, and Lao PDR.
Farmers groups and private companies
themselves provide funds to install
more dryers in different provinces. As
many as 35,000 farmers in Myanmar
beneted from using at-bed dryers. In
Cambodia, traders pay 20% higher for
dry paddy, and an additional 1012%
for mechanically dried paddy. In the
Philippines, third-generation at-bed
dryers were transferred from Vietnam,
and adaptation trials are ongoing.
Stakeholders in Cambodia,
Indonesia, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Vietnam,
and the Philippines tested small-scale
hermetic (airtight) storage systems for
grains and seeds. Local distributors were
established as well. An impact survey
indicated that Cambodian farmers who
use IRRI Super bags reduced their seed
rates by 22 kilograms per hectare. In
Myanmar, a locally manufactured bag
for rice seeds was developed, with over
10,000 bags sold to farmers.
Partners share their experiences
in using these postharvest technologies
through national learning alliances
(LA) in Cambodia, Vietnam, and the
Philippines. Five regional LAs have been
established in Vietnam.
Successes in SulawesiThrough country outreach programs
in Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, and
the Philippines, combinations of IRRC
technologies are showing positive results
in trials in farmers elds.
From 2008 to 2011, an IRRC-led
project funded by the Australian Centre
for International Agricultural Research
focused on raising rice productivity in
South and Southeast Sulawesi, two major
rice-producing provinces in eastern
Indonesia.
Farmers in four villages tested
AWD, integrated pest management, and
direct seeding (using a drum seeder) with
appropriate weed management. EBRM,
storing seeds using the IRRI Super bag,
and fertilizer management (using a soil
test kit and the computer-basedNutrient
Manager) were also benchmarked.
Farmers obtained a substantial
increase in yields of 0.5 to 2.3 tons per
hectare. The increase in mean farmer
income ranged from 22% to 566%,
signicantly higher than the 10% target
of the project.
The number of farmers adopting
direct seeding almost doubled in
Southeast Sulawesi, from 26% in the
2008 wet season to 48% in the 2010 wet
season.
None of the farmers had heard of the
Nutrient Managerin 2008, but, in 2010,1455% of the farmers had heard about it
and 1020% had used it.
Compared with farmers in control
villages, the number of farmers with
improved knowledge on key insect pest
management principles doubled. For
water management, none of the farmers
had heard of AWD in 2008, but, in 2010,
1980% of the farmers in the project
villages had adopted AWD.
The projects adaptive research
approach was integrated into a
program called Integrated Crop
Management-Farmer Field Scho
Closing yield gaps in Southeast The IRRC has proven to be an e
platform for delivering new tec
to small-scale rice farmers acro
With over a decade of valuable
experiences under its belt, the I
envisions that it will continue to
scientic leadership and essenti
networks for environmentally s
increases in rice production in S
Asias main rice bowls.
The impacts have been imp
so far, and the IRRC, through it
national partners in both the pu
private sector, has a key role to
facilitating food security in the
Dr. Singleton is coordinator of
IN NORTHWEST Bangladesh, direct seeding, combined withearly-maturing varieties, appropriate weed management,and crop diversification, is helping to ease seasonal hungercalled monga.
T.MENDOZA(2)
M.
CASIMERO
MEN, WOMEN, and childrenand theirdogshunt rats together in An Giang,Vietnam.
AT POPULATIONS can be su ccessfully managed ifrmers work together as a communityapplyingeir control at the right time and in the rightbitats.
CHRISQUINTANA
CHILDREN AND their families across Asimore reasons to smile as the IRRC conthelp bring rice to their tables.
GRANTSINGLETON
AFTER A SUCCESSFUL field trial, the women inBone, South Sulawesi, proudly carry the seasonsbountiful rice harvest.
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Almost 90% of the 11 millionhectares of rice that areplanted each season inBangladesh is transplanted
seedlings are grown in nurseriesthen moed to the field. It is aheavily labor-intensive process,requiring nearly half-a-billionperson-days across the country. In
the past, rural laborers abounded,but increasing labor out-migrationto city areas and a shift towardsalternative rural employment has
seen a severe shortage of handsaailable for transplanting rice.
This scarcity of farm workersis hurting Bangladeshi rice farmerson seeral fronts. he most obious
impact is an increase in labor costs.Also, the optimal planting per iodsfor the boro(dry) and aman(wet)
seasons are relatiely short.A lack of workers
means not allfarmers can
plant theirrice on time.
Delayedplantingleads to late-maturing rice,
increasing
the risk of croplosses at the tail
end of both seasons due to hailstorms or
ooding from rain during
the boroseason and due to drought
during the amanseason. hesefactors, combined with increasing
costs of other inputs and a falling orstagnant market price for rice, arediminishing the economic viabilityof rice production in angladesh.
But a simple, inexpensive piece of
equipment has the potential to changethe face of rice farming across thecountry. he drum seeder see photo,opposite) is a lightweight devicemade from high-density plastic with
a cost of around US$40 and a life of
- years. riginally designeInternational ice esearch
II, improements by resand manufacturers in Vietnasubstantially reduced the weand usability of the deice. Iof six to eight cylindrical dru
along a central ais. ach drstudded with holes through wpre-germinated seeds drop nrows on puddled soils as the seeder is pulled along. he d
supported by a large plastic weach end, allowing the wholeto be easily pulled along by auser at waling pace. rum s
has already had success in Vas a seed-saving strategy, butcapacity to save labor is profo
while it may take up to 50 pedays to transplant 1 hectare o
direct wet seeding with a druseeder taes barely person
angladeshs first drum-trial, conducted during the 2amanseason a collaborati
between II a nd the anglice esearch Institute funded by the International
gricultural e elopment I
was a comprehensie succthe trial, led by . ainul barming ystems pecialist
succes
sDrummingup
n improved way of planting rice
increasing farmers incomes
nd strengthening communities
n Bangladesh
Story and photography byLeharne Fountain
A AIC RM EEER holds si or eight perforated cylindrical drums housing pregerminated seare dropped in rows as the seeder is easily pushed or pulled along by a single person lie Filipi
immy onales at waling pace. M. ainul Abedin (bo ), who led the drumseeding tria
viewed about the technology by Bangladesh Channelduring a eld day in abna. he media hcrucial role in raising awareness of drum seeding throughout Bangladesh.
0
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Rice TodaySeptember 2005 Rice TodaySeptember 2005
FARMER amal heih (oo)discusses his drumseeding epewith Channel director hyh ethe abna eld day. ooing on aMinister Mira Fahrul Islam A
( ), BRRI irector of Resiloofar arim (r o rr. Abedin ( o r).
RRIs Social Sciences Division,d implemented by BRRI Chiefientific fficer usherraf usaind participating farmers, drum
eding resulted in an aerage higher yields and reducedsts compared with transplanting,d drum-seeded crops maturedaerage days earlier. hats
ore, drum-seeded rice gae anerage gross return higheran for transplanted rice. hisanslates to more than double theerage profit a boost of around
- per hectare per crop.ll those inoled saw t he
chnology as cheaper, reuiringss labor, producing higher yields
d resulting in better plant growth.he only areas of concern weree potential cost of acuiring a
um seeder, uncertainty oerailability, and weed management.
ore recently, though, a follow-p I-funded project, aiming
accelerate the adoption of thechnology, has gien II and
I, with the assistance of
the angladesh epartment ofgricultural tension ,the chance to sole some inherentproblems and lead the spread of
drum seeding in angladesh.r. bedin deeloped guidelines
for technology adoption using acommunity participatory approachto research and etension. ne ey
to the approach is a pre-adoptionanalysis that taes into considerationinstitutional, technical, policy,social and economic factors thatmay help or hinder adoption. his
means understanding an entirefarming community, not justindiidual farmers. any farmersgrow other crops in addition to
rice, so the approach must considerhow drum seeding will affect their
whole farming system. he product
of a angladeshi farm familyhimself, r. bedin emphasies
the alue of allowing farmingcommunities to mae their owndecisions, and to recognie theyhae the ability to eperiment, tae
calculated riss and innoate.
ifty-si groups across thecountry decided to try drum seedingduring the boroseason, in thehope the technology would spread
out from these points. stablishinga drum-seeded crop reuires earlierirrigation than does transplanting,so owners of tube wells eachof which usually irrigates seeral
rice farms were the first peoplecontacted in each location.
Its useless, says r. bedin, toget the farmers inoled if they cantirrigate their crop at the right time,
so it was crucial that we includedthe well owners. nderstanding,and woring within, the eistingcommunity structures is essential.
Extraordinary paceow, after just three growing seasons,
the popularity of drum seeding isspreading at an etraordinary pace.
ome , angladeshi farmers inmore than groups are alreadyusing the technology, with hundredsmore seeing access to drum seeders.
r. bedin attributes thesuccessful adoption of drumseeding in large part to theprojects community participatoryapproach and, critically, the early
establishment of research linageswith deelopment and policymaers, entrepreneurs and themedia. ltimately, though, it comes
down to the farmers themseles.It was the farmers who
eperimented with the technologyand were confident of success, eenin the face of septicism, he says.
he researchers were continuouslylearning from farmers and integratingthese lessons into the wor plan.armers also trained other farmers.
oring with groups of farmers
helps establish ongoing, community-leel monitoring and ealuation, andensures that drum-seeding successstories spread rapidly to neighbors.
he project abounds with storiesabout farmers lie bdul i, fromaipur district northeast of the
capital, haa. i soldiered on eenwhile neighboring farmers scof fed,
belieing he wouldnt harest anyrice from his drum-seeded crop. t bigha, or just under hectares
bighas eual hectare, is farmis large by angladeshi standards.e started growing drum-seededrice during the - boroseason.
reiously, his entire crop wastransplanted, reuiring laborersper bigha. or the same area, drumseeding reuired just a single laborer.
i epla ins that on top of
the labor saings, he increased hisyield by .-. tons per hectare,and he harested days earlierthan preiously with transplantedrice. e has more money in his
pocet and he intends to inest itoutside of rice farming, to increasehis earning capacity and diersifyhis income. any of is fellow
aipur farmers are now eager to
try drum seeding for themseand he is only too happy to shnowledge and eperience his drum seeder with them
Its a common theme sneighbors become true belieohammad hiasuddin, wha ery small farm in ymensdistrict north of haa, has
harested three drum-seedefter just one season, both hneighbors, who had originallhim mad, were coninced of
irtues of drum seedi ng, and
has shared the technology wIn this way, from farmer
farmer, the technology is spr
2
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Rice TodaySeptember 2005
eld days, often attended byundreds of farmers, give drum-
eding converts the chance tospire others to try the technology.a field day in pril , three
rmers shared their experiences of
um seeding with a crowd of nearly farmers and etension worersom around abna, m west ofhaa. ne of the speaers, amalheih, described the eperiment he
d some fellow farmers performedtry and reduce both the need
r irrigation and the cost of landeparation by adopting a zero-tillagechnique that made use of residual
oisture in his field from recedingodwaters and which, in concertth drum seeding, gained them
elds at least higher than for
ansplanted rice. It is this spiritof innovation and determination
that has stirred pride in thosealready drum seeding and
inspired their counterparts.
Involving Bangladeshi policymaers in the adoption process
provided a major boost. From anearly stage, Dr. Abedin realizedgovernment support would becritical (see Grain of truthon page
38). The team fostered relationswith the Bangladesh Ministry ofAgriculture and subsequently securedgoernment funding of millionangladeshi taa ,,
which was mainly used to buyan etra , drum seeders.The government also pledged tosubsidize the cost of drum seeders forfarmers. The media have also been
instrumental in increasing awarenessof drum seeding. any people notonly rice farmers approachedBRRI and DAE for information on
trying drum seeding after seeingstories about the technology ontelevision or in the newspapers.
ut there is still wor to bedone. Research is still identifying
the varieties and areasmost suited to drumseeding, particularlytaing into accountland, soil and existing
cropping systems. Weedmanagement is also an issue,
as is the availability of the drumseeders, and the possible need
for adaptations. And althoughscarcity of labor is the primary
basis for using drum
seeding, in some areas the technologyhas the potential to displace jobs.
Researchers need to be awareof their social responsibility to seethat there is no serious effect on ruralemployment, cautions Dr. Abedin.
However, the economic boost causedby drum seeding should create jobselsewhere to absorb displaced labor.
IRRI, BRRI and the DAEare currently in discussions with
Bangladeshi entrepreneurs interestedin manufacturing drum seederslocally, and two companies havealready manufactured prototypes.This sort of enterprise can help
the availability of drum seedersmeet the rising demand.
Major shift
Drum seeding represents a majorshift from transplanting, and thereis a need to manage the changeand create an environment thatallows change nationally. Training
farmers and both government andnongoernment etension worersis of paramount importance. AnII-led meeting in une ,attended by senior government
officials and high-leel research,extension, nongovernmental,media and business personnel,established a -year plan for
transferring drum-seedingtechnology. Following this, thegovernment has given the go ahead
E BIEMA ai hahabuddin (bo) approached BRRI, eager to try drum seeding on his land, after seeing the technology showcased on the locallevision programo . Farmer Mohammad hiasuddin (bo r) stands in front of his drumseeded crop. Filling drum seeders is easy for Filipino farmerernando Bambo (bo) simply open the hatch in each drum and pour in the pregerminated seeds.
Rice TodaySeptember 2005
to the project team for an additional
investment of around 100 milliontaka ($1.56 million) to continuethe work to spread drum-seedingtechnology across Bangladesh.
Originally, the only planned
benefit of drum seeding was thecost saving from reduced laborrequirements. It was expected,however, that this would be offsetslightly by an increased need for
weed management. As it turnsout, farmers have also experiencedimproved plant growth, increased
yields and earlier plant maturity,
and they have used fewer seeds.The latest results of drum
seeding across the country showyield increases of up to 20% inboth boroand amanseasons,
and up to double the net profit,translating to additional income,over transplanted rice, of 7,000-10,000 taka ($110-160) per hectareper season, a significant boost for
most Bangladeshi rice farmers. Drumseeding also frees family labor, whichhas wide-ranging social benefits.
Even with modest projections,
Dr. Abedin believes drum seedingcan have a profound impact. Ifdrum seeding works on only 4
million hectares, he explains,
a 15% yield increase equates to3 million tons of extra rice with
very little ext ra investment. Ibelieve drum seeding has thepotential to change the landscape
of rice farming in Bangladesh.Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service,
a participating nongovernmentalorganization, sees early harvest andincreased yield as more than just a
way to reduce monga(starvation)during the pre-harvest period inOctober and November. First, earlyharvesting generates employment
for landless laborers, providing themincome to buy food. Second, the earlyharvest and increased productionmake food available to vulnerablefarmers during the mongaperiod.
The farmers themselves areoverjoyed by the results and areeagerly sharing the technology withother farmers. Dr. Abedin has also
witness ed benefits of the technology
that run deeper than this the spiritof innovation and entrepreneurshipamong farmers and the strengtheningof communities through working
together are just as significant.Drum seeding is helping to
advance rice farming in Bangladesh.
In his own words, Ayub Husain is
farmers. Husain was part of the
of farmers to receive drum-seedi
from BRRI. He then trained others,
with five farmers in two locations
2003-04 boro (dry) season. In theaman(monsoon) season, just two fa
the drum seeder. The next boroseaso
more than 60 farmers sowed 15 hecta
seeding, including almost a hectare
own land. Wanting to spread the word
forces with IRRI and BRRI to hold a f
day, which was attended by the Stafor Agriculture.
Inspired by the results in his
Husain set out 500 km across Banglad
he led trials in the hometown of t
Minister to raise government awaren
technology. The trials were not as suhoped because of unsuitable cond
neither he nor the farmers were d
these same farmers are now testing
in the aus(pre-monsoon) season.What motivates a farmer to g
lengths? Husain claims his mission
to help his fellow Bangladeshi farmegrow enough rice merely to feed them
their families, and many struggle t
even that. By instilling farmers with
innovation, he believes Bangladesh
a whole can move forward. Husain ha
partnerships between farmers, scieresearchers can increase productivi
wants scientists to help farmers realiz
can take a technological approach
problems and improving their farmin
While Husain travels around t
spreading the news about drum se
other technologies, his family lookfarm. It is more important, he feels,
his time to benefit the entire country
professed father of farmers doesnt
payment for his work: parents dont e
paid for being parents, he says, For H
a reward in itself to watch his childfarmers he has mentored growin
The father of farmers
Its success so far confirms thsimple and relatively inexpen
technologies can be effective.goes much further, too. The dseeding experience is proving
working with communities intesting, adaptation and adopt
appropriate technologies, anpolicy makers, entrepreneursother stakeholders early on
words, engaging from the be
those who stand to benefit anwho have the power to help have a profound and lasting i
RICE FARMER Abdul Ahad stands beside ashallow tube well, which irrigates crops onseveral farms during the boro(dry) season.Because they control irrigation, tube wellowners are crucial to the success of drumseeding, which requires earlier irrigationthan does transp