Farmers' perception of loss in post-harvest of rice yield in Cambodia

Upgraded post-harvest technology has recently been diffused to farmers in Cambodia in order to increase rice yield production and farmers' economic foundation. However, traditional method is predominantly practiced by rice producers even though it could be inefficient, resulting in loss of rice yield through grain shattering during harvesting, insect storage pest infestation or rodent damage. In light of these problems, the aim of this paper is to identify farmers' perception of loss and to estimate the relationship between the perceptions and socio-economic characteristics. A total of 200 rice farmers were selected from Kampot province in which the sources of loss were validated by the farmers rating 5 points of the Likert scale. Data undertaken from August to September 2014 were analyzed by using descriptive and regression analysis. The descriptive analysis, the finding ascertained that the farmers perceived rodent attacks as the most serious contributor to loss resulting from freely open rice granaries whereas rice loss by spoilage and contamination during storage was perceived by household heads as the least serious contributor because the stored rice that was dried properly was not aggregately favorable for insect growth. Hence, we strongly recommend that rice farmers should consider enhancing their rice granaries, especially grains should be dried properly before storage. The regression analysis, found that age, gender, number of family members, training access, credit access, and rice income were significantly associated with the perceptions. Interestingly, training access and rice income positively influenced the perceptions. Thus, we suggest that policy makers should provide training about post-harvest technology, including rodent protection and harvesting techniques to farmers to improve rice quality and income generation. Finally, farmers should cooperate with neighbors in the same community to treat rodents together, which is an efficient method for post-harvest loss reduction.