Super Bags to thwart rice wastage now available to Filipino farmers

An airtight, reusable plastic bag that protects stored rice from moisture, pests, and rats, and keeps rice seeds viable, is now available to Filipino farmers in selected retails stores.
IRRI Super Bags reduce losses incurred after harvest that usually stem from poor storage conditions – helping prevent physical postharvest losses that can be around 15%. On top of these losses, farmers also experience loss in quality.

Farmers' investment is protected by keeping stored rice grains viable, and kept away from destructive pests and other causes of physical losses like moisture.

Developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)’s postharvest experts in collaboration with GrainPro Inc., the IRRI Super Bag is meant for small-scale rice farmers to protect the viability and quality of rice stored in their homes.
The IRRI Super Bag is manufactured by GrainPro Inc. and is marketed as SuperGrainbag™. IRRI, through its national partnerships, has verified the benefits of the IRRI Super Bag with tens of thousands of farmers throughout Asia, but acknowledges it is a challenge to bring the bags to millions of farmers in a commercial way.

Philippine farmer Manuel Luzentales Jr. has always wondered how to deal with rats and weevils gnawing their way into his paddy (unmilled rice) stored in ordinary sacks in his house.
After attending a seminar in a nearby town introducing the IRRI Super Bags to farmers in the Philippine Bicol region, he decided to test them.

Mr. Manuel Luzentales shares his Superbag story

"Before, a 7-month storage caused my rice grains to break from moisture and pest infestations," Luzentales recalls. "I tested the IRRI Super Bags on my harvest for the second planting season of 2010. After keeping my harvest in the IRRI Super Bags for 10 months, the seeds were 100% viable, and none were wasted."
Engr. Martin Gummert, head of the IRRI postharvest unit, said that the rolling out of economically viable rice postharvest technologies in the Philippines and Southeast Asia involves partners in the public and private sectors. “The IRRI Super Bag is one of the technologies in the front line of this effort,” he explains.
For this purpose, IRRI has initiated and is facilitating national Postharvest Learning Alliances that embrace public and private stakeholders who have an interest in and mandate to establish local supply chains for technologies. Through this Postharvest Learning Alliance, IRRI is assisting in setting up and training local distributors for technologies such as the IRRI Super Bag.

Farmers' investment is protected by keeping stored rice grains viable, and kept away from destructive pests and other causes of physical losses like moisture.
Farmers' investment is protected by keeping stored rice grains viable, and kept away from destructive pests and other causes of physical losses like moisture.

“The rollout of the IRRI Super Bag would have been difficult without the help of the Philippines Postharvest Learning Alliance,” explains Engr. Gummert. “These alliances allow cross-sector actors to share information, foster learning, and better address a range of technical and market support needs.”
IRRI has established national Postharvest Learning Alliances in Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
The IRRI Super Bag works by blocking the flow of both oxygen and water vapor from the outside to the grain. When the bag is properly sealed, farmers can safely store their seeds for 9–12 months without reducing germination rates. IRRI Super Bags also keep away insects and rats without using chemicals and improve the percentage of whole rice grains recovered after milling by around 10%.

Tom de Bruin, GrainPro’s president and CEO, said that a national retail network with close to 200 outlets will be involved to enable availability of the bags to farmers. “The SuperGrainbag™ is already selling widely used in three continents and is used for storage in an array of other commodities.”

In the Philippines, the key partners are Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)and other Postharvest Learning Alliance members,Catholic Relief Services with its local NGO partners, and the Department of Agriculture’s regional offices in Agusan, Bicol, and Bohol provinces. Other members are local government units in the three provinces, farmer cooperatives, and other NGO partners.

This work is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)-funded Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC).

The Super Bags can be bought in Pacifica Agrivet branches nationwide.

Philippines: More Learning Alliance activities rolled out in Butuan

by Reianne Quilloy, Trina Mendoza, and Rica Flor

The Postharvest Learning Alliance (LA) members in Butuan, Agusan del Norte met and conducted more activities in time for the town's harvesting season. Typhoon Ramon left the participants unfazed as about 40 people signed up for the Training on Reversible Airflow Flatbed Dryers and Hermetic Storage Systems in PhilRice RTR, Agusan del Norte last October 11 and 12. The project team from IRRI and PhilRice took turns to orient the Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs), farmer-leaders, and farmers' group cooperative members about the latest postharvest initiatives in the Philippines. Farmer participants lauded this effort wherein these new technologies can benefit big and small holder farmers in Agusan.

Engr. John Eric Abon of PhilRice conducts lecture on Reversible Airlow Flatbed Dryer

Shortly after the training, the LA technical working group (TWG) held its quarterly meeting at Amontay Beach Resort, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte last October 13, 2011. Partners who attend this meeting are those who have direct interest on hermetic storage. Rica Flor, the Project’s impact specialist facilitated the discussion between PhilRice, GrainPro, IRRI, DA-RFU, Caraga State University and Santo Niño Multipurpose Cooperative (SNMPC). Case study write-up, including trial protocols and data collection tools was introduced. One of the outputs of this meeting was a draft business case study for Super bags and cocoons which successfully demonstrated an increase in profit of a farmer-user.

The last activity was the Video Production Training for Learning Alliance Partners which was held on October 14. For this activity, project communication specialists Trina Mendoza and Reianne Quilloy took turns into facilitating the session with 40 information officers and staff from the CARAGA Region, Davao City, and DA- RFU 13. Reianne presented the importance of making videos and basic information, while Trina presented the basic principles of scriptwriting and Digital Green.

In the afternoon, the participants conducted a hands-on exercise in Digital Green. The participants were able to successfully follow the process of creating storyboards and produced short edited videos that showcased their creativity, innovativeness, and sense of humor.

Ms. Rebecca Atega of DA-RFU 13 and one of the learning alliance partners in Agusan, took the initiative to organize the three activities. The efforts are part of the outputs of the ADB-IRRI Posthavest project to address the postharvest challenges in Asia, including the Philippines. More learning alliance activities are expected to pour into the CARAGA region, as the project’s efforts in reducing postharvest losses through technology innovations, best management practices, and intensive information dissemination are slowly coming to fruition.

Vietnam: Workshop held on paddy storage for the Mekong Delta

A  workshop on paddy storage was conducted in Can Tho, Vietnam, on 30 June-1 July to raise the quality of Vietnam export rice through an updated postharvest system.
Vietnam is a major rice-producing country and the second largest exporter with milled rice exports reaching 6.8 million tons in 2010. However, due to lack of dryers and insufficient storage facilities, physical postharvest losses average 13.7%.

Prof. Werner Mühlbauer, a renowned postharvest expert, presented state-of-the-art warehouse storage and silo technology, and shared his experiences on grain storage in Europe and the US, and paddy storage in tropical countries like Thailand, Korea, and the Philippines.

The IRRI team, led by Martin Gummert, visited processing and storage plants to further evaluate the problems in quality of milled rice and storage systems.

The participants actively shared their observations and views on how to improve the postharvest system in their country.

One participant mentioned that introducing good agricultural practice can aid stakeholders to provide market incentives to enable producers come up with better rice quality.

The outcome of the events will become recommendations for strategies to improve postharvest processing and storage for minimized losses contributing to food security and increased quality for local consumption and exports.

The seminar was conducted through the Vietnam Postharvest Learning Alliance, which is funded through IRRI by the Asian Development Bank with co-funding form the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. It was coordinated by the Vietnamese collaborators spearheaded by the Nong Lam University.

Hermetic Storage and Flatbed Dryers Training series pilots in three PH provinces

Hermetic storage and flatbed dryers training were conducted at the Bohol, Agusan, and Camarines Sur for the month of April. Participants from the local government, seeds growers, producers and NGOs graced the events.

Lively discussions through open forum and hands-on exercises were conducted to be able to identify actual field problems and concerns were discussed with the help of Dr. Caesar Tado and Engr. John Eric Abon of PhilRice.

Basic principles on hermetic storage were also discussed by Engr. Carlito Balingbing of IRRI. Further, Alfred Schmidley facilitated a discussion on developing business models for hermetic storage which perked the interests of some participants and expressed their interest into piloting their respective business models for hermetic storage system.  In terms of facilitating adaptive research in the same area, the protocol was discussed together with the efficient monitoring and sharing of information that will be generated from the research results. At the end of the training, key farmers and seed growers gave their commitment to facilitate and coordinate with their group members in gathering relevant information and data that will be shared with the postharvest Learning Alliance.
(Edit post)