Post production: Harvesting

 

 

 

 

 

Why is it important to harvest at the right moment?

 

 

 

 

 

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Explain when the rice crop has to be harvested

 

 

 

 

 

What is harvesting?

 

Harvesting is the process of collecting the mature rice crop from the field. It begins with cutting the crop and ends with cleaning the paddy and preparing it to be dried.

 

 

 

 

 

3 rules of thumb for correct timing

 

What is the right moment to harvest the grain?

 

Good timing of the harvest is very important to get a high yield of good quality rice!

Harvest when:

  • the grain has 20-25% moisture content
  • 80-85% of the grains are straw colored and the grains in the lower part of the panicle are in the hard dough stage This is about 30 days after flowering.
  • the grains are firm but not easily broken when squeezed between the teeth.

 

 

 

 

Checking if the paddy is ready to be harvested

by measuring the moisture content

 

 

 

 

 

What happens if you harvest too early or too late?

 

 

Harvesting too early or too soon will make you lose yield.

 

If

then

you harvest

too early,

you will have many immature grains and also slender and chalky rice kernels. This will give big amounts of bran and broken grains during milling.

 

you harvest

too late,

many grains will be lost because of shattering or drying-out. If the grains are to dry, they get cracked during threshing. These cracked grains will break during milling and results in less head rice yield.

 

 

 

Cracked grain as seen through a red light filter.

 

 

 

Exercise: To check your understanding of when to harvest, click on the plant below that looks ready to be harvested

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next lesson

 

Now that you know when to harvest, you will learn in the next lesson how to cut the crop.