Improving rice milling by 1% would feed millions more

2023-09-26 18:08:20

MADRID, 26 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –

A 1% increase in whole rice grains after milling It could mean millions more servings of this critical staple grain.

It would also mean greater food security around the world and better profitability for producers, suggests a study by two Arkansas researchers published in the Journal of Agriculture and Resource Economics.

Their study estimated the impact of improving rice milling yields using harvest data from 2004 to 2020. Their goal was to understand the implications of milling quality for food security.

With a 1% increase in intact rice grains after milling, professors Lanier Nalley and Alvaro Durand-Morat calculated that Arkansas, the nation’s top rice-producing state, could hypothetically produce between 0.89 and 1.05 million more servings of rice per year without increasing yield or production inputs. In another scenario, they estimate Arkansas could produce up to 3.5 million more servings annually if all rice grown had a minimum reference milling yield potential based on a popular System A Division of Agriculture U purebred variety. .

When it comes to rice breeding, “everyone wants quantity, but quality is important too,” Nalley said. In terms of this study, “quality” means rice grains that resist breaking during the milling process.

“Improving rice quality by reducing the amount of broken rice will result in more rice reaching consumers instead of being used for other non-food uses,” Nalley said it’s a statement. “If we can improve genetics to improve quality, we will get more and more rice for humans.”

Milling yield calculations include “headed rice” yield, which is the percentage of whole grains over total ground whole and broken grains. When rice is harvested from the field, the rice grains are encased in an inedible husk and covered by a layer of bran, Nalley said. Milling removes the husk and bran layer to reveal the white rice grain. Milling yield is the percentage of polished white rice obtained by milling rice harvested directly from the field.

With this study, the researchers wanted to measure the economic impact of rice quality. To do this, they simulated increasing the number of whole grains milled instead of raising the yield ceiling by increasing the yield of paddy rice, which is the number of newly harvested rice grains.