Mekong Delta rice area's largest with about million ha. Of these, winter-spring rice crop was planted million hectares, million ha of summer-collection, case 3 is million ha and million ha of winter rice. Rice production in 2008 the entire area is million tons in 2009 is estimated at 21 million tons. Supply 90% of the Mekong Delta rice exports contributed greatly to Vietnam in the list of "powers" rice. But this is the loss rate of the highest harvest. | Ministry of Agriculture Rural Development Australian Government AusAID Project Completion Report MS14 PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT 026 05VIE Investigation of rice kernel cracking and its control in the field and during post-harvest processes in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam APPENDIX 8A EXTENSION WORKERS MANUAL-PART 1 IMPROVING FARMER S PROFITABILITY BY MINIMIZING GRAIN LOSS AND MAINTAINING QUALITY THROUGH CORRECT PROCEDURES DURING HARVESTING AND POSTHARVEST OPERATIONS 180 INTRODUCTION Reduced whole rice grain yield and value due to cracking is one of the major issues that directly reduce income and availability of staple food to the farmers in the Mekong River Delta. The cracking or partial fissuring of rice kernels may occur right in the paddy field due to incorrect harvesting time practice improper post-harvest drying conditions and inappropriate milling operations. There is a chain of activities during harvesting and post-harvest processing of rice. Figure 1 is a diagram showing a post-production system of rice in the MRD of Vietnam currently. All chains in this system can contribute to losses. Some of the important factors can be dependent to each other. Here we consider two aspects 1. Grain loss G Harvesting and post-harvesting losses in which grain is not fully recovered during a particular operation on farm 2. Value loss V Grain cracking and reduced head rice yield which result in downgrade in grain quality value such as broken rice during milling. The value of rice might be reduced by 50 or less. The main factors which contribute to the rice cracking and value losses are Harvesting time- before and after grain maturity Harvesting methods- manual reaper combined harvester Drying methods- sun drying and mechanical drying Milling losses- small medium large rice milling plants and milling procedure. Accordingly the manual is divided into 4 sections in relation to 1. Harvesting time 2. Harvesting method 3. Drying method and 4. Milling Harvesting loss is relevant only
