Agriculture plays a major role in Vietnam’s economy. It is estimated that currently 70% percent of the population is farmer. Major crops being cultivated in Vietnam include rice, maize, groundnut, sweet potato, cassava, etc. Among them, rice is the stable food using through out the country.

Locating in the South East Asia, Vietnam has an excellent natural condition for rice cultivation. Unlike other countries such as Korea and Japan where rice can only be cultivated a single crop per year, the weather in Vietnam facilitate the cultivation of 02 crops or even 03 crops per year. The suitable natural conditions together with the policies given by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have made Vietnam the second rank in exporting rice in the world.

Nevertheless, there are still several aspects need to be improved. The main problem which requires immediate attention is the post-harvest losses. In certain areas, the post-harvest losses could reduces up to 30% of the commercial values of that if otherwise would be obtained.

There are many factors contributing to the post-harvest losses of rice in Vietnam. Cultivation practice contributed a great deal to the total losses. The harvesting and threshing is done manually, the drying is relied on natural sun and wind, which most of the time at harvest is not suitable. This causes losses during harvest, losses during threshing, losses during sun-drying, and losses due to unable to dry the harvested paddy. The losses due to unable to dry immediately are the major problem; it reduces both quantity and quality of the paddy. The freshly harvested paddy is deteriorated quickly by insects and microorganisms, even if later it was dried the quality of the rice after milling may become unacceptable (may contains up to 80% brokens).

To solve this problem completely, there is only one way that is to employ machineries, where applicable, in the post-harvest processes. Since most of the rice production activities are conducted by the households, where the capitals & the knowledge is limited, the mechanicalization requires a supportive policy from government (for capital leasing), and the involvement of the scientists in the areas of Agricultural Engineering and Post-Harvest Technology for development of suitable equipments and technologies. Once equipments and technologies are adopted by researchers through the government research funds, it is important that the farmers will be trained properly to make sure the uses of such equipments will be at its highest efficiency.

Presently, the mechanicalization are being conducted in Vietnam under the supports of several Institutions, including VIAEP, however, the project is still far from achieving its goals.

I propose that conferences are required for the delegates of three parties (farmers, researchers, and policy makers) to sit together to discuss all possible options to cut down post-harvest losses.

The other factor that also contributes significantly to the post-harvest losses is the damage causes by insect pests. This loss is determined by varieties’ sensitivities to insects, misconducts by farmers in the post-harvest activities, lack of proper storage facilities, and control measures.

To be sure that the post-harvest of losses of rice is minimized, suitable storage facilities are required. For this, we (VIAEP) have introduced several models of storage facilities at household scales. In the near future, the development of an insect resistant variety through gene technology is also a “not too bad” option.

Apart from the two problems mentioned above, there are also other factors that also caused certain losses in the post-harvest field.

{xtypo_warning}This article is written by Dung Le (myself) for his friend at VIAEP in an urgent request, all statistical figures should be consulted with other sources before citing.{/xtypo_warning}