Author : Salvador, Amelita R.; Dulay, Maggie Mae N.

Summary : Agricultural mechanization in postharvest such as the use of rice combine harvesters and mechanical dryers are already taking off. However, its effects in arresting postproduction losses have not been widely quantified.

Postproduction operations such as manual harvesting (80%) mechanical threshing (96.70%) and sundrying (97.60%) are still frequently practiced by the 2,995 farmers interviewed. On the other hand, 20% and 2.4% of the farmer respondents use RCHs and MDs, respectively. Aside from sundrying, 74.57% of the 232 traders/wholesalers and millers interviewed are also using mechanical dryers.

From the current practice of manual harvesting, piling, mechanical threshing (MHPMT) and sundrying (SD), around 8.19% losses were measured. Utilizing RCH and MD in lieu of MHPMT and SD revealed that 2.08% and 1.67% of the losses can be avoided respectively. At 4.65 tons of wet paddy harvested per hectare, avoided losses were estimated at 96.72 kgs/ha of wet paddy or equivalent to 53.93 kgs of milled rice when using RCH. For MDs, around 43.30 kgs/ha losses from milled rice were avoided. Based from the inventory and utilization of the RCHs and MDs, an estimated postharvest loss savings of 12,400.63 tons of milled rice is realized which can feed roughly 104,364 people.

Updating the postproduction loss figures is deemed necessary as bases for the succeeding government plans and programs on rice mechanization. Inventory of the postproduction machinery including its utilization should be always monitored for the continuous estimation of postproduction losses.