Rice Husking as an Agro-Processing Business in Some Selected Areas of Bangladesh

The present study has been conducted to estimate the cost and margin of the rice husking mills, to identify the socio-economic characteristics of workers engaged in rice processing and explore the problems faced by the millers. The study is based on sample survey of 30 rice millers from Mymensingh and Gazipur districts. Both primary and secondary data were used in this study. Primary data were collected in March, 2006. None of the women workers had the age below 20 years, 40% women workers had primary education, average family size was 4.70, average earning member was 2.0 and the dependency ratio was 2.35. The total marketing costs were Tk.110.69 and Tk. 148.72 per 100 kg paddy for normal/semi-automatic and automatic rice miller respectively. The net marketing margins were Tk. 92.16 and Tk. 96.29 per 100 kg paddy equivalent rice for semi-automatic and automatic respectively. The annual average income of women worker of rice mill were 43800.00 from the rice mill. Among various problems irregularity in power supply, short supply of paddy, shortage of working capital, transportation problem, lack of skilled labour for automatic rice mill, spare parts of semi-automatic and automatic rice mill, and credit problems were most severe problems of rice processing mills. Uninterrupted power supply, provision of bank loan, improvement of transportation system, improvement of law and order situation, available of spare parts were suggested to improve the overall situation.