Cambodia and Myanmar: IRRI conducts training course on fan testing

Postharvest technologies are being adapted at an increasing rate in Cambodia and Myanmar. To ensure the sustainability and success of the dryer technology, the ADB-funded IRRI Postharvest Project is conducting a training on fan testing at the Department of Agricultural Machinery (DAM) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF), in Phnom Penh.

Myanmar partners of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium Postproduction Workgroup also flew in to join the training, which runs throughout this week (9-13 July). Most of the participants came from Cambodia’s agriculture department.

The opening ceremony was graced by Chan Saruth, DAM director, and Meas Pyseth, MAFF international programs coordinator.

IRRI's Pat Borlagdan, mechanization and postharvest expert, is conducting the training.

Cambodia: Postharvest project assesses outcomes

by Rica Joy Flor 

Seventy-eight partners of the ADB-IRRI Postharvest Project from Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines met in Battambang, Cambodia, on 19 June for the International Seminar on Reducing Rice Postharvest Losses, funded by the Asian Development Bank. 

Partners, who come from the government, the private sector, IRRI, and nongovernment organizations (NGOs), reported on the milestones and outcomes from adaptive research, technology promotion, and participatory approaches of the project. 

Initial results from a case study of technology adoption by farmers in Cambodia were also presented, showing indicators of benefits. 

Project outcomes in the three countries were impressive, with combine harvesting having been established in Cambodia, flat-bed dryers introduced in Cambodia and the Philippines, hermetic storage systems increasingly being sold, and laser-leveling gaining traction in Cambodia and Vietnam. 

Partners then discussed remaining activities and outlined new challenges to postharvest loss reduction and the ways toward addressing these. The project will close in October 2013. 

A half-day cross-learning event was held prior to the seminar, on 18 June, where 200 participants including Learning Alliance members, key representatives from institutions and policy, and 92 farmers visited three sites representing different players of the postharvest value chain: a farmer cooperative that provides drying services and demonstrated simple granary improvements; a large-scale miller who exports rice and uses both modern and flatbed dryers; and a rice demonstration farm at the Don Bosco School where a flat bed dryer, hermetic storage, a rice mill, laser-leveled fields, and other equipment for mechanization was showcased. 

Don Bosco operates several technical schools and is introducing in its curriculum agricultural machinery mechanics, with assistance from the project. 

Martin Gummert, project leader, said that the challenge of postharvest losses continues to increase as countries intensify rice production, which results in more and wetter paddy entering often antiquated postharvest systems. 

“Our project partners have had tremendous success in introducing new technologies,“ said Dr. Gummert. “More than 200 of the dryers introduced through the project are now in use in Cambodia. In Cambodia and Vietnam, partners have started developing the next generation of drying technology. Laser-leveling is also picking up, and hermetic storage solutions are increasingly being used." 

But the job is far from finished, said Dr. Gummert, who is also IRRI's postharvest specialist. "New problems arose with the introduction of some of the technologies, and the improper use of combine harvesters, for example, have caused excessive losses," he said. "We are committed to continue working with our partner countries in addressing these challenges, and continue helping create success stories by considering some of these outcomes in new projects and by influencing policy.” 

Philippines: ADB-funded project links postharvest actors with finance sector

by Trina Mendoza and Alfred Schmidley

More than 50 representatives from various sectors attended a forum, Emerging opportunities for postharvest technologies and entrepreneurship, which aims to increase awareness among microfinance institutions, banks, and policymakers, of improved technologies and entrepreneurial enterprise opportunities.

The forum, held on 15 January in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, also provided farmers who have tested these new options, to present sustainable business cases for adopting hermetic storage and business plans for pursuing contract drying services.

Dr. Caesar Tado, LA Philippines coordinator, orients the participants about the Reversible Airflow Flatbed Dryer, a learning alliance activity between Vietnam and the Philippines

The forum was an activity of the Philippine Postharvest Learning Alliance, a multi-stakeholder platform that works to reduce postharvest losses and increase incomes of farmers and other postharvest actors. Learning alliances have also been established in Cambodia and Vietnam by the Asian Development Bank-funded Postharvest Project, with complementary support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Alfred Schmidley, IRRI business model and value chain specialist, explains, “We hope that this event will inspire and allow these new stakeholders to establish better linkages to loan products and other services to technologies and enterprise pilot for scaling out further with Learning Alliance actors.”

Several business cases for adopting hermetic storage and mechanical drying services were presented by local farmers. Mr. Schmidley and Raquel Dacanay from Caraga State University provided guidance for the farmers in developing business cases.

Several financial institutions then presented a range of activities, products, and services available to the farmers who want funding for their business plans.

The participants also discussed issues on finance and policy and next steps for future learning activities.

The event culminated with a demonstration of the reversible airflow flatbed dryer by Dexter Ona and Caesar Tado from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice); and the IRRI Super Bag by Jose Gomos, vice-president of GrainPro, Inc.(makers of the Super Bag), at the PhilRice Agusan del Norte station.

Cambodia: Laser leveling reintroduced

The Department of Agricultural Engineering (DAEng) demonstrated laser leveling in the rice fields of Don Bosco School and Toul Samrong Agricultural Engineering Development Center in Battambang Province and in a farmer’s rice field at Kandal Province. 

The resurgence of laser-leveling comes as the country attempts to ease labor shortage through the use of agricultural machinery, such as combine harvesters. 

The ADB-IRRI Postharvest Project supported the field demonstrations by imparting techniques and providing laser kits. The DAEng contributed a bucket and an 82-HP tractor that has been used for laser leveling in target areas since 2011. 

Laser leveling activities have been continuously implemented by DAEng with support from the Agricultural Value Chain Program or CAVAC, Australian Programme, and the Kampot Provincial Department of Agriculture at Sdach Kong Khang Cheung Commune, Banteay Meas District, Kampot Province. Thirty hectares of farmers’ rice fields were laser-leveled from end of April 2012 to mid-June 2012. 

Beneficiaries and stakeholders have seen the merits of the technology enough to adopt it. During the field day on laser leveling at the pilot project in Kampot Province on 9th September 2012, 

It also attracted the interest of Chan Sarun, minister of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, who recommended putting laser leveling into the national programme.

Laser land-leveling was introduced in Cambodia by IRRI in 1997, with about 200 rice fields around the Tonle Sap Great Lake leveled using it. Joe Rickman, IRRI scientist, and experts from the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institution (CARDI) and DAEng introduced laser leveling then to Cambodian farmers through training activities and field demonstrations. The operation, however, was halted after the project ended, largely because the technology was not widely known in Cambodia at the time and adaptation was low.  

Indonesia: Seminar on rice postharvest technologies and fan testing held in South Sumatra

The Post-Production Work Group of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium held a two-day seminar-orientation on rice postharvest technologies, in collaboration with the Balai Pengkajian Teknologi Pertanian (BPTP) in Palembang, South Sumatra. 

Thirty farmer leaders, manufacturers, and local government officials attended the event. The attendees were introduced to the stripper harvester technology that will compliment more than 300 flatbed dryers adapted in the area. A video on the stripper harvester was shown, in which the relevance of the technology to flatbed dryers were presented as well as the scarcity of manual labor in the area. 

Farmers raised some of the problems encountered with the flatbed dryer during the seminar, including low drying air temperature and long drying time. 

Pat Borlagdan of IRRI discussed the requirements for a good flatbed dryer and briefed the farmers on fan-testing and how it can ensure the proper functioning of flatbed dryers. A demonstration on the use of an actual fan test rig assembly was held. 

Professors from Sriwijaya University also spoke on the process of technology adaption and the critical role of manufacturers. 

The IRRC-PPWG is managed by Martin Gummert, IRRI postharvest specialist.

The event was was graced by Andy Mulyana, director of the Suboptimal Land Research Center in Sriwijaya University; Rudy Soehendi, director of BPTP Palembang; and Benjamin Lakitan, deputy director for research at Jakarta Central Office.

Philippines: Postharvest Learning Alliance helps farmer groups develop business plans

by Alfred Schmidley

The Sto. Niño Multipurpose Cooperative (SPMC) and the Taguibo Farmers’ Irrigators Association hosted working meetings in Agusan to develop business plans for postharvest enterprise activities, with support from the Postharvest Learning Alliance and Caraga State University.

 The goal of the meetings was to enable farmer groups to develop their own business plans for piloting or expanding their postharvest activities as entrepreneurial enterprise models. Two particular areas identified, for which business plans are being developed by the farmer groups, were mechanical drying of farmers’ paddy and use of rice by-products.

 Gertrudes Fortun, agriculturist from Butuan City, expressed hope that the farmer groups will use the business plan tool to attract resources for adoption of improved postharvest technologies, such as mechanical dryers.

 Plenio Atega, SMPC president, explained that, during the wet season, harvested paddy "often remain covered too long on sun-drying platforms during extended rainfall, sometimes even germinating before we can dry it for milling." The result is very low-quality paddy and milled rice, and farmers like him lose a lot of money as a result.

 At the Taguibo Irrigators Association, President Romy Lasco had a similar concern. “Our farmers can lose at least 30% of the crop due to lack of drying facilities during the wet season. Traders then discount the equivalent of 5 kilograms off the price out of every 50 kilograms due to low paddy quality, and farmers lose another 10%.”

 Professor Raquel Balanay, an economist from Caraga State University, and Alfred Schmidley, business model specialist for IRRI, advised the farmers’ groups on the use of a business plan.

 “During the meetings, we examined the business case for offering mechanical drying services to farmers but discovered many other interesting enterprise activities that these farmers are engaged in," shares Dr. Balanay. "For example, both farmers groups recently began vermiculture and organic fertilizer enterprises that usepostharvest by-products such as rice hull, rice stalks, and coconut husk fiber. They mix these with livestock manure to form high-nutrient compost, a product that helps farmers decrease input cost while allowing their organizations to sustain themselves by selling higher-margin value-added products. The Taguibo group is now looking at setting up a small shop in Butuan for selling vermiculture products, compost, and farmer-produced organic food items."

 “Farmers, when properly enabled, can be very resourceful and innovative,” Mr. Schmidley observed. “The business plan tool can help them analyze the business case for new technologies, expand profitable enterprise activities, or attract additional resources and capital.”

 The next step for the Postharvest Learning Alliance is to host a multi-stakeholder meeting in November where farmer groups, microfinance institutions, rural credit cooperatives, and other groups can learn more about postharvest enterprise opportunities.

Cambodia: Postharvest Learning Alliance sponsors forum on microfinance

by Alfred Schmidley

The multistakeholder Cambodia Postharvest Learning Alliance sponsored a business forum, Emerging opportunities for microfinance in the postharvest rice sector, held on 14 September 2012 at the Himawari Hotel in Phnom Penh.

Thirty-one participants came, representing 9 microfinance institutions (MFIs), Asian Development Bank; Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain Program; IDE; HARVEST; provincial departments of agriculture; Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF); Departments of Agricultural Extension and Agricultural Machinery; private sector rice processors; IRRI; and the local project team.

The event was opened by Meas Pyseth, coordinator, IRRI Postharvest Project; Bun Mony, CEO of SATHAPANA, one of Cambodia's leading MFIs; and Alfred Schmidley, IRRI business model specialist.

Dr. Pyseth, in his welcome remarks, highlighted project achievements and technologies now available to farmers and other chain actors that reduce physical losses, improve quality, and allow value-adding throughout the chain. These technologies include combine harvesters, mechanical dryers, and hermetic storage options that have been tested and studied in a business model context for sustainability and improving incomes of farmer and other rural actors.

“The next step for the Project is to link actor-specific business plans with MFIs by improving financial literary and creating awareness about loan products and postharvest sector opportunities,” IRRI's Dr. Schmidley stated. “By identifying needs for technical support and disseminating knowledge about improved technologies and postharvest management options, the Learning Alliance can help reduce risks to actors and loan providers in newly emerging enterprises.  However, to achieve this we need to improve financial literacy of actors and create awareness among MFIs about emerging opportunities.”

“To achieve better outcomes, we need human resources and financial capital, but it’s also important to find better ways to deploy resources more effectively by joining together with other actors,”  Dr. Mony added. “There are 33 MFIs licensed by Cambodia’s National Bank that have more than 800 branches countrywide. While 40% of Cambodian households have used microfinance in the past, we need to offer suitable loan products that serve new needs while keeping in mind the commercial context of enterprises.”