Physicochemical and nutritional properties of rice as affected by parboiling steaming time at atmospheric pressure and variety

To elucidate the effect of different parboiling steaming time on the physicochemical and nutritional quality of rice, four varieties, NERICA1, NERICA7, IR841, and WITA4, were soaked at the same initial temperature (85°C) and steamed for 5, 15, 25, 35, and 45 min. NERICA7 steamed for 25 min recorded the highest head rice yield (71.9%). Nonparboiled IR841 recorded the shortest cooking time (17.0 min), while NERICA1 steamed for 35 min recorded the longest cooking time (26.1 min). NERICA1 steamed for 45 min was the hardest (63.2 N), while nonparboiled IR841 was the softest (28.7 N). NERICA7 recorded higher peak and final viscosities across all steaming times compared to the other varieties. NERICA7 steamed for 35 and 45 min recorded the lowest total starch (77.3%) and the highest protein (13.2%) content, respectively. NERICA7 steamed for 25 and 45 min recorded the highest phosphorus (0.166%), magnesium (572 mg/kg), and potassium (2290 mg/kg) content, respectively. We conclude that, depending on desired physicochemical and nutritional properties, specific varieties and steaming times can be selected to achieve those outcomes

Innovation platform and governance of local rice value chains in Benin: Between game of power and internal democracy?

In Benin, rice plays a major role in the food security of the poorest rural and urban populations. However, the rice value chains have failed to achieve their potential because of some systemic constraints. In recent years, innovation platforms (IPs) have received increasing focus as mechanisms for strengthening the interaction between the stakeholders in the rice value chains. Nevertheless, the issues of information asymmetry and power between stakeholders with often divergent interests suppress the expected effects of the implementation of IP approach. This article used thematic content analysis to assess the influence of IPs on the governance of the parboiled rice value chain. The findings reveal that local rice value chains are characterized by unequal access to resources and asymmetry of power, which generates inequalities within groups. Although their influence is less discernible, IPs have contributed to greater visibility for some emerging stakeholders and rebalanced stakeholders in terms of influence in value chains. Moreover, the perverse effects of financial and human resources management limit the impact of improvement actions in various value chains. Therefore, the development model of value chains may be oriented toward the “business idea approach” instead of the “project approach”

Appropriate parboiling steaming time at atmospheric pressure and variety to produce rice with weak digestive properties

Consumers with diabetes mellitus have shown interest in products with low postprandial glucose. To produce rice for this group of consumers, the effect of parboiling steaming time (0, 5, 15, 25, 35, and 45 min) and variety (NERICA1, NERICA7, WITA4, and IR841) on resistant, damaged starch fractions and glycemic response in rats was investigated. Resistant and damaged starch fractions were influenced by variety and steaming time but this was not the case for glycemic index. Nonparboiled NERICA7 and NERICA7 steamed for 25 min recorded the highest (10.07%) and lowest (2.49%) resistant starch fraction, respectively. Resistant starch correlated negatively with protein and sodium and positively with lipids. Damaged starch was high for WITA4 steamed for 45 min (26.80%) and low for nonparboiled NERICA1 (6.59%). Damaged starch correlated positively with lipid content and negatively with ash and total starch content. NERICA7 steamed for 35 min recorded the lowest postprandial glucose level 30 min after feeding (0.16 g/L), while WITA4 steamed for 15, 25, and 35 min and nonparboiled NERICA7 recorded higher levels (0.76, 0.91, 0.84, and 0.76 g/L, respectively). NERICA7 steamed for 35 min recorded both low glycemic and weak digestive properties because the glycemic index was lowest 120 min and increased steadily up to 180 min after feeding. We conclude that the digestive properties of rice depend both on the intrinsic properties of the variety and the parboiling steaming time

A MULTIATTRIBUTE UTILITY ANALYSIS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHOICE IN THE CALIFORNIA WILD RICE INDUSTRY

Technological choice and competitive strategy issues are reviewed and then a framework for choosing between two competing technologies is proposed.The two competing technologies differ in their ability to store and process wild rice over a marketing year. The traditional technologies requires almost immediate processing of the harvested wild rice while the experimental technology allows harvested wild rice to be stored and processed over the course of the marketing year. Technological choice is explored using multiattribute utility analysis and two economic evaluations. The economic evaluations are payback period analysis and internal rate of return analysis given uncertain demand conditions. The experimental technology is shown to be the dominant technological choice under both multiattribute utility analysis and the economic analyses.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Commercialisation, Commodification And Gender Relations In Post Harvest Systems For Rice In South Asia

When the output of a product that has been the basis of subsistence and social reproduction - as rice has been in Asia - expands, the marketed surplus rises disproportionately to the growth rate of production. Post harvest activities that were part and parcel of the reproductive activity of household labour (in the hands and under the feet of women - even if under the control of men) then also become commercialised. Firms expand in number and labour markets sprout up as firms become differentiated in size, scale and activity. Food security comes to depend not only on the market but also on the social and political structures in which markets are embedded. One of these social structures is gender. Two aspects of this gendered process are explored in this essay. The first is 'productive deprivation' which was argued by Ester Boserup to be the most notable impact of development on women. Using field evidence comparatively from four regions of South Asia from the 1970s to the present, the impact of the waves of technological change accompanying concentration and differentiation in rice markets is shown to be strongly net labour displacing and strongly biased against female labour. Nevertheless productive deprivation is class specific and masculinisation still co-exists with a high general level of female economic participation. To start to explain why productive deprivation is class specific the essay offers a development of Ursula Huws' theory of commodification and its impact on women in advanced capitalist conditions - elaborating it for conditions of mass poverty. Poverty is shown to limit the relevance of this gendered theory. Poverty is also an important reason for the persistence of petty commodity production and trade and petty service provision. Under petty production women are either self employed or unwaged family workers for men who are themselves not fully independent but frequently dependent on money advances from commercial capital. Evidence from West Bengal in the 1990s - where the growth of rice production has eased up - shows by contrast that the process of commodification has not eased up at all. Products, by-products, intermediate and investment goods, waste, public goods, state regulative resources and labour are all relentlessly commodified. The process creates livelihoods mainly for young, low caste men. Low caste women dominate itinerant retailing, directly dependent on money advances from male wholesalers. Women are being displaced from the rice mill labour forces in which economies of scale are pitched against unwaged work in petty production. The subordinated status and double work burden of women in petty production is well known, as is their economic dependence and social insecurity. (rice - masculinisation - commodification - comparative regional analysis - comparative institutional analysis).

Fonio. Upgrading quality and competitiveness of fonio for improved livelihoods in West Africa : First activity report

Traditional cereals constitute the staple diet of many African populations and regions, especially in the most isolated rural areas, and play an essential role in providing food for the poorest populations. They are well suited to local conditions, being reasonably resistant to drought, and help to maintain the environment by providing a covering of vegetation on ground which is ecologically fragile, and considered of little value. Among traditional cereals, fonio (Digitaria exilis), is considered as the most ancient indigenous West African cereal. Nowadays, fonio still grows in farmers' fields in a vast area extending from Senegal to Chad mainly on eroded lateritic soils. In West Africa, farmers cultivate mainly white fonio (Digitaria exilis), which is also called fundi, findi, acha or "hungry rice". The term 'hungry rice' well describes the role of this little plant in local population life. Fonio supplies to several million people food early in the growing season, when main crops are still too immature to be harvested and when other food resources are scarce. Fonio consumption varies between years and seems to be dependent on the availability of other cereals. When other cereals are not available, for example due to a failing harvest, fonio consumption is high, and thus fonio consumption could be considered as one of the coping strategies for increasing household food security. The relative stagnation of production is partly explained by a lack of research and development devoted to this product. In order to ovoid the decline of this commodity, it is important to solve the many problems after the harvest, in particular by perfecting post-harvested techniques and by improving the quality and the follow-up of sales and distribution. Today, fonio is produced by small enterprises and sold not only on local urban markets, but also to Africans emigrated in Europe and in United States. Indeed several small private enterprises, notably in Mali and Burkina, have been set up to cater for the export markets. There is strong consumer demand for fonio due to its nutritional qualities, and because it helps to satisfy the demand for a more varied cereal diet. That is the reason why a research/development project named FOMO - Upgrading quality and competitiveness of fonio for improved livelihoods in West Africa- was elaborated to achieve the following objectives. The FONIO project started formally at January 1, 2006 per three years duration. (Résumé d'auteur

Changing Women’s Roles in Homestead Management: Mainstreaming Women in Rural Development

This paper has been prepared as part of CPD's advocacy activities with IRRI under the PETRRA project and was presented at the dialogue on Women's Contribution to Rural Economic Activities: Making the Invisible Visible. It reports the result of the focus group discussions with men and women as a supplement to the quantitative information gathered from household surveys as presented in the CPD Occasional Paper 41. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted in 8 out of the 62 villages from 57 districts included in the quantitative study.Women, Bangladesh

Risk and benefit of different cooking methods on essential elements and arsenic in rice

Use of excess water in cooking of rice is a well-studied short-term arsenic removal technique. However, the outcome on the nutritional content of rice is not well addressed. We determined the benefit of different cooking techniques on arsenic removal and the associated risk of losing the essential elements in rice. Overall, we found 4.5%, 30% and 44% decrease in the arsenic content of rice when cooked with rice to water ratios of 1:3, 1:6 (p = 0.004) and 1:10 (parboiling; p<0.0001) respectively. All the essential elements incurred a significant loss (except iron, selenium, copper) when rice was cooked using 1:6 technique: potassium (50%), nickel (44.6%), molybdenum (38.5%), magnesium (22.4%), cobalt (21.2%), manganese (16.5%), calcium (14.5%), selenium (12%), iron (8.2%), zinc (7.7%), and copper (0.2%) and further reduction was observed on parboiling, except for iron. For the same cooking method (1:6), percentage contribution to the recommended daily intake (RDI) of essential elements was highest for molybdenum (154.7%), followed by manganese (34.5%), copper (33.4%), selenium (13.1%), nickel (12.4%), zinc (10%), magnesium(8%), iron (6.3%), potassium (1.8%), and calcium (0.5%), Hence cooked rice is a poor source for essential elements and thus micronutrients

The quiet revolution in agrifood value chains in Asia: The case of increasing quality in rice markets in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh—one of the poorest countries in Asia, where rice accounts for almost 70 percent of consumers' caloric intake—the share of the less expensive, low-quality coarse rice is shown to be rapidly decreasing in rice markets and the quality premium for the best-quality rice has been consistently on the rise in the last decades. It thus seems that the role of rice as only a cheap staple food is being redefined. The off-farm share in the final consumer price increases from 27 percent to 35 percent to 48 percent for low-, medium-, and high-quality rice, respectively, and the increasing demand for higher quality is thus seemingly associated with a more important off-farm food sector—in particular, milling, retailing, and branding—as well as a transformed milling industry. We further find that the labor rewards for and the technical efficiency of growing different rice qualities are not significantly different, and farmers do not benefit directly from consumers' increased willingness to pay for higher rice quality.Markets, milling, Quality, rice, value chains,

Japanese agricultural ODA and its economic impacts: Technological assistance for the rice green revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa

Since 2008, JICA has made great efforts toward doubling rice production in Sub-Saharan Africa in 10 years. This study explains JICA’s approach and projects and reviews the research findings on JICA’s rice training projects. The trainings on rice cultivation practices increased the rice production of the training participants, not only in the short term but also in the long term. The training benefits seem to spill over to the neighbors within the same irrigation scheme. When introducing upland rice to areas where rice was not grown, selecting areas suitable for rice cultivation is a key for sustainable adoption and production.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/kijima-yoko