Author : Yin Yin Nwet

Summary : The results showed that 71% of the rice farmers decided to either store all rice harvest, or sell a portion and put the rest in storage while 60% of the rice traders followed the same practice. The rice farmers adopted the traditional practice of storing rice while traditional and modern practices were employed by the traders. Majority of the farmers and traders did not have to pay for rice storage fees except depreciation because they own the land wherein they have built storage houses. Analysis of the productive efficiency of the rice industry using the load factor method revealed that average storage facilities at the farmer's level were underutilized with 35% capacity utilization and at the trader's level, the average storage facilities were overutilized with 125%. Storage losses of rice farmers were much higher (21%) than that of the rice traders (12%). The factor found to be significantly affecting the farmer's decision on rice storage were price of rice after storage, storage cost, education, and availability of equipment. Aslo, the factor affecting trader's decision on storing rice include price of rice after storage, experience in rice trading, availability of equipment and availability of loan.