The main staple food in the Philippines is rice; this is consumed by 90% of its population (Pagaduan,

2014). In addition to this it is one of leading if not the most produced crop in the country annually and
was the source of income for many farmers for generations. According to (https://www.statista.com/),
rice is the second most produced crop in the country by volume of production totaling to 19.3 metric
tons of palay produced in 2021 it is second to sugarcane which reach more than 24.4 million metric tons
in the same year. In addition to this, the Philippines ranked 8 th in world rice production in 2018
(FAOSTAT, 2020) and 9th in 2019-202 (https://www.statista.com).

According to (Pagaduan, 2014) Rice considered as the main staple food in the Philippines and consumed by more
than 90% of the country’s population. In addition to this it is one of the leading if not the most produced crop in the
country annually and was the source of income for many farmers for generations. Rice is the second most produced
crop in the country by volume of production totaling to 19.3 metric tons of palay produced in 2021 it is second to
sugarcane which reach more than 24.4 million metric tons in the same year ((https://www.statista.com/). In addition to
this, the Philippines ranked 8th in world rice production in 2018 (FAOSTAT, 2020) and 9th in 2019-202
(https://www.statista.com).

With these great quantity of rice production, the country still experiences shortage in rice supply for the past years.
According to inquirer.net, Despite being an agricultural country and with the Department of Agriculture (DA) devoting
a bulk of its budget to improve local production, the Philippines’ rice imports have nearly quadrupled in the last three
years from 2017 to 2019 and remained as the biggest rice importer in the world for the following years alongside
China.

Contributor to this rice shortage is the practices involved in post-harvest handling of palay specifically the
drying technique. According to (https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/) A 2010 government study said 4.3%
percent of palay harvest is wasted during harvest, and 5.5% percent during milling. of palay itself. Other
causes are drying (5.9%), and storage (0.8%). According to IRRI traditional drying technique such as mat
drying and pavement drying are still widely used in the Philippines. This type of drying technique despite
of being cheap possesses disadvantages such as uncontrolled temperature that causes cracking of rice
grains during milling, lots of manpower involved as well as contamination

According to a government study conducted in 2010, 4.3% palay is lost during harvest, 5.5% during milling, 0.8%
during storage and 5.9% is lost from drying. According to IRRI traditional drying technique such as mat drying and
pavement drying are still widely used in the Philippines. This type of drying technique despite of being cheap
possesses disadvantages such as uncontrolled temperature that causes cracking of rice grains during milling, lots of
manpower involved as well as contamination
According to (Candia A. 2015) in Uganda Local Swamp Rice “Due to lack of mechanized drying equipment and
owing to the low volumes of their harvests, these farmers use open-sun drying methods, where the paddy is spread
on tarpaulins, cemented floors or bare ground. In most cases the paddy is badly dried and is highly fissured”
In Uganda’s Local Swamp Rice, with the lack of adequate mechanical palay dryer as well as having their harvest
being in debt, farmers of the said country rely on open-sun drying method which causes palay grains to be badly
dried and highly fissured as well.

The traditional sun drying method is fallible to the unpredictability of weather, and could lead to the re-wetting and
spoilage of the paddy crop. On the other hand, artificial drying systems (mechanized dryers) overcome such
disadvantages and are capable of protecting crops from rains and weather changes (Bags, 2021).
According to (Bags, 2021), due to the nature of weather to be unpredictable to man, traditional sun drying method is
often subjected to erroneous results that may lead to moisture reabsorption and spoilage of paddy crops. This is
solved with the introduction of mechanical dryers that is capable of drying under any weather conditions.