Enhancing seed quality in Sri Lanka through improved drying and storage

Workshop participants are introduced to setting up a Solar Bubble Dryer,
a technology on paddy drying which has the potential to increase
labor productivity and to maintain the quality of seed.

IRRI and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations through the Closing Rice Yield Gaps with Reduced Environmental Footprints (CORIGAP-PRO) and the European Union Support to District Development Programme increases the national capacity of Sri Lanka on postharvest technology for rice by conducting a workshop on drying and storage technologies.

Through a two-day workshop, extension agents, researchers, and farm technicians were introduced to the importance and basic principles of paddy drying and proper storage in ensuring the quality of rice. Trainees were also introduced to operating and troubleshooting available paddy drying systems like the Solar Bubble Dryer (SBD) and storage options like the hermetic GrainSafe(™) through different hands-on activities. These technologies would eventually help in improving grain quality and marketability and thus giving smallholder farmers an opportunity to earn more from what they have produced.

Farmer-buyer collaboration can help increase farm productivity in Nepal

Contract farming , a conditional arrangement on inputs and/or output between farmers and buyers, could increase rice farm productivity in Nepal by 7%, according to a recent study by agricultural economists published in Wiley Periodicals.

Research results indicated that the rice yield gap between contract and independent (non-contract) farmers is significant at 13%, which could partly be attributed to contract farming. Findings indicated that participation in contract farming  increased the average farm productivity levels of paddy seed farmers from 87% to 94%.