Rachel’s Rice Hulling Project

The 766 families in the villages near my home village grow and harvest approximately 383 tons of rice each year. This rice is eaten three meals a day and each grain must be removed from its hull via hand-pounding, a physically exhausting and time consuming process. A machine to hull rice could serve multiple small-income generation, women’s empowerment, and environmental impact reduction goals.

If the machine were in use 20 days a month, the three-village community association would generate a minimum profit of $140 per month, which could be used to pay four workers at $25 per month, a valuable stable income in this part of rural Madagascar. Remaining profit would be kept and overseen by the community association treasurer to cover emergency machine repairs,
maintenance costs, and fuel.

The introduction of an efficient, mechanical means of hulling rice will reduce the physical strain women endure hand-pounding rice twice per day and allow play time for young girls. Adult women would hopefully use their time for reading, study, and developing income generating activities such as basket and mat weaving.

An estimated 90% of the island’s original forest cover has vanished due to population pressure. A rice-hulling machine can provide fuel for cookstoves, significantly reducing local firewood consumption. Every family with a rice hull-fed, fuel-efficient cookstove could reduce its firewood consumption by as much as 75%, sparing 167 acres of forest from wood extraction, annually.

The community association proposes to contribute 25% of the requested project funds. They understand that there will be no additional funding beyond the authorized amount of US $2,687 on the proposal as submitted.