This document compares the technical and economic performances of traditional and modern systems of rice parboiling in northern Benin. It finds that the modern system has higher rice yields, net margins, productivity of family labor, and productivity of capital invested. The modern system is therefore concluded to be both technically and economically superior. The document recommends policies to promote wider adoption of the modern parboiling system in order to strengthen the value chain for locally produced parboiled rice in Benin.

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TECHNICALAND ECONOMIC
PERFORMANCES OF TRADITIONALAND
MODERN SYSTEMS OF RICE PARBOILING
IN GOGOUNOU AND BANIKOARA
COMMUNITIES IN NORTHERN BENIN
REPUBLIC
Tankpinou Rémy GBEDE, Dado Philomène BIAOU,
Agossoussi Thierry KINKPE and Afouda Jacob YABI;
LARDES, Université de Parakou, Benin Republic.

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INTRODUCTION
• Rice is a cereal crop grown and consumed all over the world
(Hemavathi & Prabakaran, 2018).
• Consumption of rice increases increasingly in West Africa
(Diagne, 2016).
• Rice plays then an important role in the human diet of West
African Countries.
• Benin Republic, one of the West African Countries, is no
exception to these regionals trends.
• In fact, in recent years, rice has been one of the most consumed
cereals in Benin (Konnon et al., 2014).

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INTRODUCTION
• Its consumption increases annually at a rate of 4% every year
(Balaro and al. 2015).
• According to USDA (2016), rice consumption per capita was
about 50 kg / year in 2013 in Benin.
• This consumption is covered both by local production and
by import.
• However, the Benin’s rate of dependence on imports of rice is
about 70% (USDA, 2016).
• In fact, in recent years, rice has been one of the most consumed
cereals in Benin (Konnon et al., 2014).

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INTRODUCTION
• Therefore, several efforts have been made by the country to
enhance local rice production
and for so limiting the consumption of imported rice.
• Thus, the rice production in Benin has been growing steadily
since the mid-1990s thanks to the implementation of low-cost
micro- planning managed by the farmers (Adégbola & Singbo,
2003) and the introduction of improved varieties.
• As a results, rice production has increased from 16,545 tons in
1995 to 48,607 tons in 2000, then to 150,604 tons in 2009
(MAEP, 2010b) and 204,309,71 tons in 2015 (CountrySTAT
Benin, 2016).

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INTRODUCTION
• Despite these efforts, the development of local rice and its
markets face many problems that lead buyers to focus on
imported rice (Dagan, 2006).
• Local rice is not competitive on the local and sub-regional
markets.
• According to Adégbola & Singbo (2005), the principal problem
that local rice faces remains its low quality leading to low
competitiveness with imported rice.
• Improving the quality of local rice appears necessary.

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INTRODUCTION
• It is in this framework that researches have particularly
focused on rice parboiling, which is a paddy processing
activity that helps improve the nutritional qualities of rice.
• An improved equipment of rice parboiling has then been
developed and released to rice processors in rural area.
• The primary aim of the introduction of this improved
equipment was to improve quantitatively and qualitatively the
yield of parboiled local rice while maintaining its organoleptic
qualities and its market value (Houssou, 2002).

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INTRODUCTION
• Furthermore, an old parboiling practice exists and is
commonly referred to as "traditional parboiling" but does not
provide good quality of parboiled rice.
• But, in spite of the technical advantages of the modern system
of rice parboiling, the usage of the traditional system is still
noticed in the rural areas and its frequency of use would seem
to even exceed that of the modern system.
• In other words, the level of adoption of the modern system of
rice parboiling remains relatively low.

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INTRODUCTION
• Studies have already addressed this problem of low
adoption of the modern equipment and have identified causes,
including its high cost of acquisition (Lawin, 2006) and its
exclusive usage for parboiling alone (Houssou, 2002).
• But to our knowledge, there are few studies
that have compared the technical and economic performances
of both equipment to see which one would better help the rice
processors.
• In other words, the question “which one of the traditional and
modern rice parboiling systems is economically more
profitable for rice processors?” is yet to be answered.

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INTRODUCTION
• This paper has attempted to answer that question by assessing
and comparing the technical and economic performances of
the modern and traditional systems of rice parboiling in
Northern region of Benin Republic.

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METHODOLOGY
 Area of Study
• District of Alibori
in Northern Benin
Republic
• 2 Communities :
Gogounou and
Banikoara

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METHODOLOGY
 Sampling techniques
• Following the criterion “introduction or not of the modern
equipment into a village”, 2 villages of modern system and 2
villages of traditional systems were randomly chosen from each
of the 2 communities, making 4 villages of modern system and
4 villages of traditional system for the whole study area.
• From each of the selected villages, 20 rice processors were
randomly selected using random sample method.
• This process made up the study sample size of 160 rice
processors, consisting of 80 modern processors and 80
traditional processors.

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METHODOLOGY
 Data collection
• A survey was undertaken to collect primary data from rice
processors using structured questionnaire.
• Data collected were about the demographic and socio-economic
characteristics of the rice processors, the quantities and prices of
the inputs and outputs of processing.

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METHODOLOGY
 Data analysis
• Descriptive statistics
• Tests of comparison of means

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METHODOLOGY
 Data analysis
• Net parboiled rice yield at the shelling (Biaou et al., 2016)
𝑹𝑹𝑹𝑹 =
𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷
𝑸𝑸𝑸𝑸
(1)
Where :
 Methods of assessing technical performance of
the rice parboiling systems
• Ri is net rice yield at the shelling (Kg/ Kg paddy) obtained by
processor i;
• PTi is the total amount of parboiled rice obtained at the end of
the process by the processor i (Kg);
• Qi is the total amount of paddy processed by the processor i
(Kg paddy).

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METHODOLOGY
 Data analysis
• Profitability analysis was used through 3 indicators (Sodjinou,
2011; Yabi et al., 2012a ; Yabi et al., 2012b; Biaou et al.; 2016;
Akpo et al., 2016 and Sodjinou, 2016).
 Methods of assessing economic performance of
the rice parboiling systems
• Net Margin (MN) analysis
• Average Productivity of Family Labour (PML)
analysis
• Average Productivity of Capital invested (PMK)
analysis

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METHODOLOGY
 Data analysis
• Net Margin (MN) Anlysis
𝑴𝑴𝑴𝑴 = 𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷 − 𝑪𝑪𝑪𝑪 (2)
Where :
 Methods of assessing economic performance of
the rice parboiling systems
• PBV is the Revenue (F CFA/ Kg paddy)
• CT is the total Cost of processing (F CFA/Kg paddy);
• MN is the Net Margin (F CFA/ Kg paddy).

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METHODOLOGY
 Data analysis
• Average Productivity of Family Labour (PML) analysis
𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷 =
𝑴𝑴𝑴𝑴
𝑴𝑴𝑴𝑴
(3)
Where :
 Methods of assessing economic performance of
the rice parboiling systems
• MN is Net Margin (F CFA/ Kg paddy)
• MO is the total Family Labour employed in the
processing process (Man day/Kg paddy);
• PML is the average Productivity of Family Labour (F CFA/
Man day).

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METHODOLOGY
 Data analysis
• Average Productivity of Capital invested (PMK) analysis
𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷𝑷 =
𝑴𝑴𝑴𝑴
𝑪𝑪𝑪𝑪
∗ 𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏 (4)
Where :
 Methods of assessing economic performance of
the rice parboiling systems
• MN is Net Margin (F CFA/ Kg paddy)
• CT is the total Cost of processing (F CFA/Kg paddy);
• PML is the average Productivity of Capital invested (%).

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 Costs of rice parboiling according to
parboiling systems
Indicators Parboiling systems Number (N) Means Standard error
Variable Cost
(Fcfa/kg paddy)
Traditionnel 80 144,811 11,438
Modern 80 150,316 8,479
Both 160 147,563 10,409
Statistique t de Student= 3,458 ; ddl= 158; p= 0,001;
Dm= 5,505 (1,591)***
Fixed Cost
(Fcfa/kg paddy)
Traditionnel 80 0,699 0,313
Moderne 80 3,372 2,148
Both 160 2,040 2,034
Statistique t de Student= 11,013; ddl= 158 ; p= 0,000 ;
Dm= 2,673 (0,242)***
Total Cost
(Fcfa/kg paddy)
Traditionnel 80 145,366 11,265
Modern 80 153,609 8,366
Both 160 149,488 10,721
Statistique t de Student= 5,254; ddl= 158 ; p= 0,000;
Dm= 8,24279 (1,568)***

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 Comparison of the technical and economic
performances of the traditional and modern
systems of rice parboiling

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Technical Performance
Indicators Parboiling systems Effectif (N) Means Standard error
Yield (kg/kg riz paddy)
Traditionnel 80 0,4706 0,046
Moderne 80 0,5714 0,056
Both 160 0,521 0,072
Statistique t de Student= 12,280 ; ddl= 158; p= 0,000;
Dm= 0,10075 (0,00820)***
Profitabilty
Indicators Système d’étuvage Effectif (N) Moyennes Erreur-type
Net Margin (F CFA/
Kg paddy)
Traditionnel 80 2,927 14,935
Moderne 80 40,814 17,003
Ensemble des 02
systèmes
160 21,871 24,811
Statistique t de Student= 14,973 ; ddl= 158; p= 0,000;
Dm= 37,887 (2,530)***
Productivity of
Family Labour (F
CFA/ Man day)
Traditionnel 80 88,934 733,371
Moderne 80 680,422 796,754
Ensemble des 02
systèmes
160 384,678 818,933
Statistique t de Student= 4,885 ; ddl= 158 ; p= 0,000 ;
Dm= 591,487 (121,071)***
Productivity of
Capital invested (%)
Traditionnel 80 2,462 10,478
Moderne 80 26,915 11,534
Ensemble des 02
systèmes
160 14,689 16,464
Statistique t de Student= 14,035; ddl= 158 ; p= 0,000;
Dm= 24,452 (1,742)***

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
• The modern system of rice parboiling is technically and
economically better than the traditional system.
• Private or public agricultural policies should then vulgarize
more the modern system of rice parboiling and help rice
processors for an easy acquisition of the parboiling kit so as to
make more effective the value chain of the local rice parboiled
in Benin Republic.

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