National postproduction loss assessment for rice and maize

摘要

This project assessed the state and magnitude of postproduction losses in both rice and maize in the Philippines at the farmers' and traders/millers' levels of operation. Actual measurements of these losses at both on-farm and off-farm operations were made for both wet and dry cropping seasons in 13 major rice-producing regions in the country. Surveys of the farmers' and traders/millers' postproduction practices were likewise conducted in order to be able to explain the reasons behind these measured losses. For paddy, losses from harvesting to milling averaged 14.84% with a range from 1,13 to 31.94%. The most critical operation was drying--with an average loss estimated at 4.50%, constituting about 30% of the total losses, while the next highest loss was incurred during the milling operation with an average loss of 3.10% (21% of the total losses). These losses were compared with those measured in 1974 and in 1984, although the latter was conducted on a more limited scale. The total losses from harvesting to milling measured in 1974 averaged 23.5% with a range of 10-37%, while those measured in 1984 had an average estimated at 16% with a range of 9-23%. These results indicated declining losses attributable to advances in technologies for postproduction operations in rice and maize. For maize, the average estimated losses for the country were 12.7% and, again, drying was the most critical among the various postproduction operations--assessed at 4.6% (constituting 37% of the total losses), followed by storage with an average of 3.1% (24% of total losses). Based on the results of the surveys, there were a number of socioeconomic and technical factors found to have influenced the magnitudes of losses for both rice and maize.