Reduce overall grain production and value by cracking is one of the main problems directly reduces income and the availability of staple food to the farmers in the Mekong Delta. Cracking or fissuring of a grain of wheat that may occur in the rice field by harvest time is not right / real, post-harvest conditions improper drying and milling activities inconsistent. There are a series of activities during harvesting and processing rice harvest. Figure 1 is a diagram showing a system of rice production in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam today. All strings in this system may contribute to losses. Some. | IMPROVING FARMER S PROFITABILITY BY MINIMIZING GRAIN LOSS AND MAINTAINING QUALITY THROUGH CORRECT PROCEDURES DURING HARVESTING AND POSTHARVEST OPERATIONS EXTENSION WORKERS MANUAL Extension Manual MS7 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 in the first two sections while the grain cracking and head rice yield are affected by activities during the harvesting as well as post-harvest. Extension Manual MS7 Types of Losses Harvesting ------------ Time Method - ----At the mature date ----After
