1.

Economies of scale and synchronising planting and harvest to make best use of labour
and machinery
2. Using manures and producing AGP paddy so that they get better price
3. Selling by products
4. Buying insurance for the crop
5. Sensitizing and education them about good practices

2. Using good quality manure to produce agriculturally good produce paddy leading to
higher selling price

Organic materials and manures come from plant or animal wastes or by-products such as
cattle or poultry manure, composted rice straw or other crop residues, sewage sludge, oil
cakes, green manures, and legume clippings. They are normally applied uniformly across the
field, two or more weeks before being incorporated into the soil during land preparation.
They improve soil fertility and soil organic matter content and to provide micronutrients and
other growth factors not normally supplied by inorganic fertilizers. Application of these
materials may also enhance microbial growth and nutrient turnover in soil.

It is advisable to combine the use organic manures with the application of inorganic nutrient
sources as needed. This allows farmers to use organic materials or manure available on-
farm at low cost to supply a portion of the crops demand for nutrients and improve soil
fertility where required. The use of organic manures available on-farm can return high yields
and profit when combined with inorganic fertilizer, particularly on upland or poor lowland
soils.

Using the combination of manure and inorganic nutrient sources, high quality paddy can be
produced, which would earn high price in the market.

3. Generation of a new revenue stream via selling of by products

The main by-products of rice are rice straw, rice husk or hull, and rice bran.
The economic utilization of these by-products, which constitute nearly 30%, by weight of the
paddy processed, is essential to improve the economy of the industry.

Rice Bran Average extraction is about 5% from paddy crops. From raw bran, we get 15-
20% and from parboiled bran, 20-25% of oil. Raw Bran oil in India is used for industrial
purposes immediately after milling or oil should be extracted sooner.

Brans of rice, oat, barley wheat, beet sugar etc. are good sources of fibre. It consists of
hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin, pectin etc. which are known to alleviate or minimise several
diseases like heart attack, blood pressure, diabetics, colon cancer, obesity and constipation.

Rice Husk Husk content varies in paddy varieties. The average content is about 20%, i.e.
about 22 million tonnes are available in the country annually. Its fuel value is about '72 of
coal and 1/3 of mineral oil. Husk is largely used as fuel, that too uneconomically. At 30%
efficiency 1 kg of husk can give an energy equal to 1 kilowatt hour (one unit). Different types
of furnaces are used for burning husk.

If all the husk available in India is used for power generation, 50% of the energy generated
itself is sufficient to meet all the electrical energy required by the industry so cogeneration in
rice mills, using husk holds lot of promise

Special stoves which use husk as fuel have also been designed for use in kitchens. Furfural,
chloroform, carbon black, activated carbon, Silica gel. Sodium silicate are some of the other
derivatives useful of paddy husk. If husk is incompletely burnt the ash can be used as a
diligent for manure. The ash is also used to increase the bulk are as base material for husk
boards. Loose insulating material in buildings and cold storage and in shipping as packaging
material.

4. Buying insurance for the crop

The weather-based crop insurance scheme (WBCIS) and the modified national agriculture
insurance scheme (MNAIS), the two components of the National Crop Insurance Programme
of the Union government, have been extended to farmers in Kerala. Crops like paddy,
plantain, cashew, sugarcane, mango, and tapioca are covered under the scheme.

Under the WBCIS scheme, Rs. 10,000 will be the insured amount for an acre and the
insurance premium is Rs.200.
Farmers should be made aware of the above schemes so as to protect their crop from floods.
For a small amount of premium (200 Rs) they can get an insurance cover of Rs 10000 per
acre. Even governments should take a proactive role in promoting the scheme to the last mile.