Reducing Women's Labor In Parboiled Rice Transformation

Karime Séré of Intermon Oxfam of Spain, in collaboration with the National Research Institute for Technology and Science in Burkina Faso, will develop more efficient and durable rice husk furnaces and lower-cost rice sorting equipment to reduce the labor intensity of parboiled rice production, the principal livelihood activity of 18,000 Burkinabe women. Rice husk furnaces significantly reduce the time burden of collecting firewood by utilizing rice hulls as a readily available substitute fuel, and also reduce cooking time of rice by around half. Low-cost prototypes will be developed and then distributed to women rice workers via rice transformation centers in Burkina to evaluate their performance over one year with a view to scaling up to other countries.