Improved Rice Milling Quality May Help Combat Food Insecurity

The Problem

Food insecurity — when people don’t have access to enough safe and nutritious food — is a significant issue around the world. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an estimated 1.3 billion people globally experienced food insecurity in 2022. Rice provides over 20 percent of the world’s calories and is a staple for over half the global population, according to research in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology.

When rice is harvested from the field, the rice grains are encased in an inedible hull and covered by a bran layer. Milling removes the hull and bran layer to reveal the white rice grain. Sometimes, rice kernels break during the milling process.

When rice breaks after milling, it may end up in non-food markets such as the pet food and brewing industries. Rice produced in Arkansas feeds some of the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere, including in Haiti, which is the largest importer of Arkansas rice. Rice varieties with higher milling quality — that is, rice that is less likely to break during the milling process — could result in more servings of rice going to feed humans.

The Work

Professor Lanier Nalley and Associate Professor Alvaro Durand-Morat, both in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department, evaluated two theoretical rice production scenarios: (1) the effect of a 1 percent marginal increase in head rice yield, and (2) the effect of setting a minimum milling yield potential. “Head rice” yield is the percentage of whole kernels over the total whole and broken milled kernels.

Nalley and Durand-Morat used Arkansas rice acreage data from 2004-2020, along with yearly variety-specific yield and milling rates from the Arkansas Rice Performance Trials. The minimum milling yield potential for the second scenario was based on Roy J, a purebred Arkansas rice variety. For example, Roy J’s head rice yield in 2015 was 61 percent. The researchers artificially set 61 percent as the minimum head rice yield for all varieties grown in Arkansas in 2015 and calculated the resulting increase in milling yield for that year.

They calculated the hypothetical increase in head rice yield for each variety harvested in Arkansas under both scenarios. The researchers then input these hypothetical milling yield values from 2004-2020 into a model that assessed the cumulative impact of the increased head rice on the market.

The Results

The results of the first scenario estimated that Arkansas could produce up to 1.05 million more servings of rice per year with a marginal 1 percent increase in head rice yield. The results of the second scenario suggested that when all rice grown in Arkansas reached the minimum milling yield matching Roy J on any given year, Arkansas could potentially produce between 2.94 and 3.5 million more rice servings annually.

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The Value

When it comes to rice breeding, Nalley said rice quantity is often the focus. However, Nalley said this study emphasizes the importance of quality — in this case, defined by milling yield potential. Improving the quality of rice by reducing the amount of broken rice will result in more rice reaching consumers rather than going to non-food uses.

Additionally, since broken rice kernels often receive a discounted price, from 50 to 72 percent of the value of whole kernels, rice farmers who produce more whole kernels stand to improve their financial bottom line. Without using more inputs, like labor or fertilizer, farmers can achieve better head rice yields and, therefore, more profit.

“Increasing quality will increase producer profitability, and it gets rice into some of the poorest people’s stomachs in the world,” Nalley said.

About the Researcher