Abstract
This research made an attempt to identify the present status of rice milling, map and analyze milled
rice and machinery value chains along with associated constraints and recommend priority areas of
interventions. The research also presents a system dynamics model of supply chain of milled rice
systems starting from the farmers to the consumers to design policy options for efficient and
sustainable supply chain management in Bangladesh to ensure the availability of rice to the
consumers in an economic manner under uncertainty. Data were collected from primary and
secondary sources. Stratified random sampling technique was used for identifying respondents
quantitative survey; while FGDs and Key Informant interviews were conducted for qualitative
investigations. There are about 15,500 husking mill, 650 semi-automatic mills and 300 automatic rice
mills in the country. Husking mills still dominating the rice milling sector and it covers about 70% of
total milled rice production. However, recent trend shows that the husking rice mills fail to compete
with modern automatic and semi-automatic rice mills in terms of quality and market demand, thus,
shifting to semi-automatic and automatic rice mills. The milling capacity and capacity utilization of
husking mill, semi-automatic and automatic rice mills were found 0.8-1.0 t/h, 1.5-1.75 t/h, 3.-3.5 t/h
and 34%, 40% and 56%, respectively. Milling cost, profit per ton of fine parboiled rice and BCR for
husking, semi-automatic rice mill without and with modern equipment, automatic rice mill without
and with modern equipment were found Tk. 2601, Tk. 2954, Tk. 3460, Tk. 2601, Tk. 3098 and Tk. 3637,
Tk. 4376, Tk. 5677, Tk. 6466, Tk. 8190, respectively and BCR were 1.4, 1.48, 1.64, 2.49, 2.64,
respectively. Profit margins for parboiled fine rice processed in husking mill; semi-automatic rice mill
without and with modern equipment, automatic rice mill without and with modern equipment were
found 37.04%, 40.68%, 51.84%, 50.45%, 53.34%, respectively. Rice mill machinery channel importer
and local machinery manufacturers' profit margins were found 3% and 1.5% of machinery cost,
respectively. Employment opportunity in terms of labour and staff requirement for husking mill,
semi-automatic rice mill without and with modern equipment, automatic rice mill without and with
modern equipment were found, 14.17, 14.17,15.67, 3.20, 3.95 man-hr/ton of paddy, respectively for
labour and 6.95, 9.13, 4.50, 5.99, 4.14 man-hr/ton of paddy, respectively for staff. Automatic rice mills
with and without modern equipment are doing good business compared to semi-automatic and
husking mills. In terms of quality of rice e.g. less broken rice, absence of stones and black kernels,
brightness, colour etc., the rice mills having modern equipment produce higher quality rice, with
higher market demand and higher profit making ability compared to rice mills having traditional
equipment. In terms of system dynamics model of supply chain of milled rice, the impacts of
productivity changes of the seasonal production of rice, lead time and demand average variability on
the supply chain performances were assessed towards creation of an efficient and sustainable supply
chain network. Initially drying the rough rice and subsequently using it throughout the year i.e.
round the year operation of the milling industries stabilizes not only the milling inventory but also
the whole system. Therefore, less total supply chain cost from economic operation results in less fuel
consumption and hence less contribution to global warming. This model provides greater insight and
better understanding of the supply chain of milled rice systems and it can be used in a computer
laboratory for policy analysis.