acdivoca nutrition rice softcopy

7/31/2019 ACDIVOCA Nutrition Rice Softcopy

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In recognition o the relation-ship between nutrition, agricul-tural science and market orces,the development communityis moving toward increasingly

integrated value chain devel-opment programming. Prac-titioners now must includenutritional considerations intocore agricultural developmentwork and measure nutritionalimpact. This act sheet is pro-duced as part o ACDI/VOCAsongoing learning agenda. Itis one in a series designed tobe a practical and inorma-

tive resource or sta on thenutritional value o crops andon leverage points within thevalue chains or maximizingnutritional impact.

Introduction

R

ice is the primary stapleood o many sub-Sa-

haran Arican countries.It is the largest single sourceo calories in many West Ari-can countries (including CtedIvoire, Guinea, Guinea Bis-sau, Liberia, Senegal and SierraLeone),1 and while many do-mestic rice industries struggleto compete on price and tastewith imports, ricegrowncommercially and or subsis-

tenceis important or itsimpact on economic growthand ood security as well. Notsurprisingly, rice was selectedas a value chain o national

ocus by over hal o the Feedthe Future priority countries,including Ghana, Kenya, Mali,Senegal, Tanzania and Mozam-bique. However, milled rice hasrelatively low nutritional value,and processing methods cangreatly inuence the amounto nutrients retained in theend product. Thus, a nutrition-sensitive approach to the rice

value chain is very appropriate,as market development withoutsuch a perspective may achieveeconomic benefts but leavenutritional benefts uncertain.

This act sheet identifes thenutritional profles o dierenttypes o rice and recommends

ways to improve nutritionalbenefts at various stages othe rice value chain. Strate-gies to increase the nutritionalbenefts o rice-based diets can

play an important role in alle-viating undernutrition in ruralhouseholds, especially amongwomen and children.

Riceor any grain eatenalonecannot supply all othe nutrients necessary oradequate nutrition. Micronutri-ent defciencies are commonin rice-consuming regions

when rice makes up most othe daily diet. Animal productsand fsh are useul additionsto a rice-based diet as theyprovide large amounts o high-quality protein and micronutri-ents. Legumes such as beans,groundnuts and lentils are alsonutritional complements to arice-based diet and help tocomplete the protein profle.3

Nuts and seeds are rich inenergy, protein, antioxidants,vitamins and minerals, and area good source o omega-3 attyacids (an essential atty acid).And vegetables are an excellentsource o vitamins, minerals andantioxidants. They supply thevitamin C, B vitamins and miner-als that are lacking in a rice diet.See Table 1 or profle.

Nutrition Integration Fact Sheet

Nutrition Integration Fact Sheet

RICE


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Considerationofeffectsofimport/exportpolicies

Regional/GlobalEnabling

Environment

International

retailers

romo ono pu c nves men s n

Demandcreationforfortifiedandmorenutritiousricevarieties

Exporters

Enduser:household

consumer

Retailers

NationalEnablingEnvironment

Cross

cuttingImprovedfinanceflowthroughchain:

Processors

Wholesalers

Educationandbehaviorchangeonnutritionalbenefitsofdifferentricetypes

providers

(e.g.,

financial

services,

extension,

e.g.,toprocessors orfortification;toinputsuppliersforpromosandtrialsofimprovedvarieties;toproducers,esp.women,forinput

Producers

Intercro in or rotation of rice

Consumptiono ricewit egumes orcomp eteproteinprofileAdditionofvegetables,eggstoincreasedietarydiversity

ranspor ,

storage)purchases

IntegrationofnutritionInputsuppliers

andlegumes,fishAdoptionofimprovedvarieties

Increasedawarenessofnutritionalimplicationsofprocessingtechniques

e uca on n oex ens onservices(includingSMS)

Improve supp ieraccessto sourcesoimprovedseeds(e.g.,NERICA,GoldenRice) IncreaseddemandfromconsumersEducationofagentsonnutritionalbenefitsof legumes,fishrotatedwithrice

Supportforfortificationofrice

Nutritional Consider-ations in a Rice ValueChain System

Agriculture practitioners otenocus on increasing a cropsnutritional benefts throughproduction-level interventions,yet many additional opportuni-ties arise when a crop is viewedin the context o the broader,integrated systems (such as in-puts, support services, market-ing, production, storage, etc.)

that orm the entire value chainsystem. A simple value chain

representing rices path romarm to ork is shown belowwith sample interventions

to improve nutrition at eachstage. Some o these examplesare discussed in greater detailin the text that ollows.

Note: A comprehensive nutri-tion-sensitive, value chain sys-tem approach to developmentconsiders the nutritional impacto bottlenecks in the enablingenvironment (e.g., import/ex-port bans, price controls, oodsaety standards), support ser-vices (e.g., transport, fnance,

packaging, etc.) and the natureo linkages, relationships andgovernance in the value chain

system. This is represented inthe graphic below, but becausethis is introductory act sheetis intended or application in adiverse array o market environ-ments, ACDI/VOCA has target-ed the discussion that ollowsalong the core value chainpath. For more inormation onthe value chain approach, seehttp://microlinks.kdid.org/vcwiki.

See Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Nutritional Considerations in a Rice Value Chain System


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Input Supply

Linkages with Input Suppliers:Many agricultural value chainprograms target inefcienciesin input supply systems; Atthe same time, practitionerscan educate rural agents andretailers about improved ricevarieties, such as those profledbelow. At demonstration plotsor feld days, input suppli-ers can also demonstrate the

dual agronomic and nutritionalbenefts o rotating and inter-cropping rice with legumes,fsh or vegetables (or example,see Production below). Whereimproved or bioortifed seedsare available, practitioners canacilitate linkages betweeninput companies and bioorti-fed seed suppliers so they canbegin stocking the product andreceive training.

Hybrid and BioortifedSeeds: Several types o im-proved seed varieties haveemerged in recent years:

Hybrid varieties: New Riceor Arica (NERICA), orexample, is a product ohybridization between the

cultivated rice species oArica and Asia. It combinesthe local-stress adapta-tion o Arican rice with thehigh-yield potential o Asianrice. NERICA is more dis-ease resistant and ertilizerresponsive. There are now18 upland varieties and 60lowland varieties. Anotherhybrid variety NERICA is themakassane variety in Mo-zambique, which is resistantto bacterial lea blight andblast. The variety producesa long grain and has ahigher milling recovery rate.

Vitamin A-bioortifedvariety: Golden Rice is agenetically engineered,yellow-orange rice grainthat contains beta-carotene(a plant orm o vitamin A).

Breeding o varieties suit-able or Asia is underway,but they are not yet avail-able in Arica.

Zinc-bioortifed variety: ZincRice is being developed byHarvest Plus, and is to be re-leased in 2013. Zinc Rice con-tains high level o zinc and isdisease and pest resistant.

Production

Rotation Planting4: Legumescomplement cereals like rice inboth production and consump-tion. During the productioncycle, legumes improve soilertility and require less waterthan cereals. Their rotationwith cereals also helps con-trol diseases and pests. Rota-tion between beans/peas andupland rice is more common,

while rotation with lowland riceis also possible. Many vegeta-bles, such as pepper, carrots,garlic, onion and melons, canrotate with rice. In addition,rice-growing areas may con-sider rotating with oilseed, nutsand vegetables. Planting thesenutritious crops with rice notonly helps soil conservation, butalso provides households withaccess to diverse ood options.

Intercropping with Fish5,6:Fish can be raised in feldswith lowland rice; this is widelypracticed in Asia and in somecountries in Arica, Areas orintercropping should have aconsistent water supply; beree rom excessive ooding;and be in a ertile area. In a

Macronutrients Micronutrients

Rice is low in at and provides mainly carbohydrates orenergy. The protein level o rice is the lowest among thecereals. Furthermore, it is defcient in some essentialamino acids (including lysine) and contains an excessamount o other amino acids that negatively inuencethe bodys protein utilization.

Unmilled rice is a good source o thiamine (vitamin B1),riboavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3) and dietary f-ber. However, these B vitamins and other micronutrientsare lost when rice is milled and/or polished (e.g., whiterice and broken rice) due to the loss o the bran layer.These nutrients are retained in brown and parboiled rice.See table below or additional inormation. Rice is not agood source o iron, zinc and vitamin A.2

Table 1: Nutritional Profle


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rice-fsh cropping system in In-donesia or example, two stripsare planted with rice, while two

strips are let empty or fsh.Fish is high in omega-3 attyacid (an essential atty acid),quality protein, vitamins (A, D,E and K ) and minerals. Animalproteins supply iron, zinc, o-late and vitamin B12, and havea complete protein superior toplant protein in terms o qual-ity and digestibility. Fish canbe ed maize, rice, pig manure

and chicken manure, so armspracticing integrated armingtechniques can utilize all armresources or greater cost e-ectiveness.

Improved production tech-niques: Low rice yields con-strain availability, aect oodsecurity and reduce competi-tiveness. Through improved

production techniques thatlead to higher yields, armershave greater means to pur-

chase additional oods to com-plete a balanced diet. Moreefcient production practicescan lead to savings in produc-tion costs such as inputs andlabor, allowing armers, espe-cially women, to devote moretime and money to other activi-ties such as child care and mealpreparation. One example oan improved production tech-

nique is system o rice intensi-fcation (SRI), which was devel-oped in Madagascar 25 yearsago and is now being adoptedthroughout the continent. SRIis a set o arming practicesthat increase the productivityo irrigated rice by changingthe management o plants,soil, water and nutrients.7,8 For

example, SRI involves careulplanting o young seedlings(812 days old) one by one and

widely spaced (25 cm or more);keeping the soil moist butwell-drained and well-aerated;and adding compost or otherorganic material to the soil asmuch as possible. Successulapplications o SRI have shownthat armers can raise theirpaddy yields by 50100 percentor more while using ewer arminputs, especially water.

Processing

Processing has a big impacton the nutritional value o rice,as mentioned under the nu-tritional profle above and asillustrated in the table below.Brown and parboiled rice havethe highest nutritional value.

See Table 2, below.

Brown Rice Parboiled Rice Milled Rice

Other names Whole-grain, unmilled rice,some country rice

Golden rice (dierent romthe bioteched variety)

White rice, broken rice, pol-ished rice, butter rice

Processingand storage

Only hull is removed; nutritiousbran layer is kept; not good orlong-term storage

Soaked, pressure steamed,milled, steam dried and de-hulled. Bran layer and othercomponents are commingled

Hull and bran layer are re-moved by milling and urtherpolishing

Nutritionalvalues

High

B vitamins and fber are retained

Medium

B vitamins lost during steaming

Low (i not enriched or ortifed)

B vitamins and fber are lost

Regional pre-erences

Senegal Nigeria, Northern Ghana,Liberia

May vary rom household tohousehold

Cooking Hard Easy Easy

Potential in-tervention

More efcient cooking equip-ment/methods

Improve parboiling technique(steaming) to minimize vita-min loss; improving soakingmethod to reduce aatoxin risk

Enrichment/ortifcation

Table 2: Processing Overview 9


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Fortiying rice10: In more-developed commercial systems,rice can be ortifed, althoughrice ortifcation is relativelyexpensive compared to ortif-cation o other products (e.g.,

our, oil). This is not because othe cost o micronutrient ortif-cants themselves, but becauseo the costs associated with theproduction process, includingthe synthesis o artifcial ker-nels or the coating process onatural kernels. Further study onconsumer preerences o orti-fed rice also needs to be con-ducted. Four technologies areused to ortiy rice11:

Coating, the most com-mon o the technologiesin developing countries,involves coating rice kernelswith a ortifed spray thatorms a premix that is thenblended with polished rice.Initial investment in a coat-ing acility is approximately

$300,000.

Cold extrusion, similar tothe process used to manu-acture pasta, producesrice-shaped simulatedkernels out o dough madeo rice our, a ortifcant mixand water.

Hot extrusion is similar to

cold extrusion, but the ad-dition o heat to the processresults in ully or partiallypre-cooked simulated ricekernels that look more likereal rice.

Dusting, practiced onlyin the United States, in-volves dusting polished ricegrains with powder rom amicronutrient premix. Therice must then be speciallycooked to avoid excessiveamounts o water that stripo nutrients

End Market

Consumer Awareness: Behaviorchange among consumers willincrease acceptance o and amil-iarity with more nutritious variet-ies and processed orms o rice.Households must also under-stand the importance o consum-

ing diverse, nutrient-rich oodthat is grown in gardens ratherthan selling all o it or cash.

Demand Creation: Linked toconsumer education, practitio-ners can work with companies tocreate demand or ortifed anddiverse local oods through nu-trition education and marketing.

Product Diversifcation: Prac-titioners can support the com-mercial ambitions o businessesinterested in ortifed rice prod-

ucts and support the develop-ment o market channels orbroken grains such as rice our,which is easier to ortiy, or lo-cally produced enriched rice.

Key Recommendations

Eating a diverse diet is veryimportant or householdsollowing a rice-based diet.

It improves nutritional status,and diversifed production andprocessing strategies reducerisk or smallholder armers andimprove market opportunities.Agricultural development proj-ects should highlight this dualbeneft o diversifcation in bothproduction and consumption andconsider the entire value chain

Fish FarmingHistorically, fsh arming has ocused on raising large fsh or sale outside thearming communities. Managing the balance between arming large fsh or

sale and small fsh or household consumption should be a priority. Somesurveys ound that dishes made rom small fsh were more equitably sharedamong household members than dishes made rom large fsh; thus, smallfsh have a larger impact on household nutrition.

Demand Creation

Consumers in urban Guinea preerred imported white rice over the locallyproduced parboiled variety. To increase demand or domestically producedrice, retailers created a marketing campaign targeted at raising consumerawareness o the superior nutritional value o parboiled rice. While it tastesdierent and takes longer to cook, parboiled rice has higher vitamin con-tent than white rice and is benefcial or diabetics, as it takes longer or thebody to convert to blood sugar. The nutritionally linked marketing cam-paign helped change consumer perceptions around domestic rice (espe-cially that o emale caretakers) and increased demand.


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1 http://microlinks.kdid.org/sites/microlinks/fles/resource/fles/GFSR_WA_Rice_VC_Analysis.pd

2Golden Rice. http://www.goldenrice.org/index.html

3Rice and Human Nutrition, FAO

4 Cereal knowledge bank. http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/ckb/PDFs/croppingsystem/socioeconomic/socioeco-nomic%20constraints%20to%20legumes%20production%20in%20rice-wheat%20cropping%20systems%20o%20india.pd

5Legowo System or Fish-Rice Intercropping. http://www.agnet.org/library/pt/2001007

6 Arica Farming. http://aricaarming.ino

7System o Rice Intensifcation. http://ino.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/245848/about.html and http://sri.ciiad.

cornell.edu/index.html

8SRI: System o Rice Intensifcation. http://sri.ciiad.cornell.edu/index.html

9GFSR West Arica Rice Value Chain Analysis (USAID, 2009),Rice Fortifcation in Developing Countries (USAID, 2008); andRice in Human Nutrition ( FAO, 1993); combined.

10Fortiying Aricas Future (FORTAF). http://www.orta.org/index.htm

11 Rice Fortifcation in Developing Countries: A CriticalReview o the Technical and Economic Feasibility. http://

www.a2zproject.org/pd/Food-Rice-Fortifcation-Report-with-Annexes-FINAL.pd

12PATH Ultra Rice. http://www.path.org/projects/ultra_rice.php

system in designing interven-tions. Critical messages rom thisact sheet include the ollowing:

Rice contains ew micronutri-ents and low-quality protein;thereore it should be con-sumed with proteins such aslegumes, fsh or other animalproducts to provide a balancednutritional profle.

Rotating rice with legumesimproves soil quality, andin some environments fsh

can be grown in swamp ricefelds. The household canimprove its nutritional statusby eating these crops, andincrease income by sellingsome o them.

Most micronutrients arelost during processing (e.g.,

milling, polishing) o whiteand broken rice, howeverbrown and parboiled rice

retain those nutrients. Improved processing

techniques, such as riceortifcation and improvedparboiling, can add value tocommercial product and im-prove the nutritional valueo rice or consumers.

Producer and consumer ed-ucation is key to increased

consumption o nutritiousoods, but consider theroles other market actors(e.g., input suppliers, re-tailers, etc.) can playandtheir incentives or doingsoin education and be-havior change.

ACDI/VOCA is an economic development organization that ostersbroad-based economic growth, raises living standards and creates vibrantcommunities. ACDI/VOCA has worked in 145 countries since 1963.

Visit us at www.acdivoca.org.

Ultra Rice

PATH recently developed theUltra Rice simulated grain us-

ing extrusion technologies; itnow licenses that technology tocommercial partners. Ultra Riceis high in vitamin A, and is mixedwith white ricetypically at a 1 to100 blend ratioresulting in orti-fed rice that is nearly identical tounortifed rice in smell, taste andtexture.12

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