HCM City (VNA) – Agriculture sector insidersput forth solutions to improve the entire rice value chain towards cleanproduction, especially in the Mekong Delta, at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh Cityon March 3.

At the event, rice exporters said Vietnam isfacing difficulties in rice export as the volume of shipments dropped from therecord of over 8 million tonnes in 2012 to 6.6 million tonnes in 2015, and isstill falling. Although the country ranks first in the rice export volume, itis facing challenges in quality and also climate change impacts, hence the needfor solutions to reshuffle the entire rice production chain.

Tran Van Nhan, Director of the Vietnam Cleaner ProductionCentre Co. Ltd, said a Swiss-funded project on minimising industrial wastetowards low-carbon production has selected rice processing to apply cleanproduction solutions since this link has major influence on the entire chain.

Accordingly, rice producers have been instructedin how to adopt energy efficiency solutions in rice hulling and grinding and tooptimise rice husk. Husk can be used to make fuel (husk briquettes and huskfuel blocks) or silica can be extracted from rice husk ash to be used as anadditive in producing construction materials, he noted.

The Vietnam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood2) has expanded the use of energy efficiency solutions in rice production ateight subsidiaries in the Mekong Delta. They have modified equipment to userice husk, instead of oil or coal, as fuel. They have also modernised riceprocessing lines to raise productivity and reduce fuel consumption.

Pham Van To, deputy head of the technique andbasic construction division at Vinafood 2, said since 2013, the Song Hau FoodCompany – an affiliate of the corporation – has effectively applied energyefficiency solutions, saving 980,000 kWh of electricity so far.

Those solutions have brought about economicbenefits while helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he added.

At the workshop, experts also suggested ways toimprove other steps in the production chain relating to land preparation, riceseed and pesticide use, processing and sale, thereby raising Vietnamese rice’scompetitiveness in the global market.

The Swiss-funded project on minimisingindustrial waste towards low-carbon production has been implemented in severalcountries with a view to gradually reducing industrial waste and by-productsand promoting the use of waste as a source of fuel.

In Vietnam, the project is being carried out inrice and coffee processing. Since 2013, the project has helped 16 riceprocessing factories and 10 coffee processing companies adopt clean productionpractice, saving over 1 million kWh of electricity (equivalent to more than80,000 USD) and reducing 621 tonnes of CO2 emission each year.-VNA