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This paper aims to investigate the effect of several valuable resources (organizational reputation, human resource management (HRM) practices, networks, and vertical integration in production) in explaining the performance of rice-milling firms in Thailand.

Resource-based view (RBV) theory was used to explain that the particular bundle of firm resources can become the source of sustainable competitive advantage and thereby improve the business's performance. Semi-structured in-depth interviews and questionnaire were used to collect data from Thailand rice exporters. Then regression technique was employed for data analysis.

Results from a survey of rice mills involved in international export showed that organizational reputation, some HRM practices, and networks were significantly related to firm's performance, but vertical integration was not.

This study supports the basic assertion of RBV theory that a set of firm specific resources could be applied in ways that enhance sustainable competitive advantage.

Improving milling quality is expected to improve the quality of domestic rice and hence the competitiveness of Uganda's rice industry. Therefore, this study aims to assess the determinants of four aspects of milling, namely, choice of milling technology, millers' perceptions of the importance of paddy quality attributes, milling return and milling capacity.

Multinomial logit, semi-nonparametric extended ordered probit, linear regression and additive nonparametric models are applied to cross-sectional data obtained from a sample of 196 rice millers.

Physical, economic, institutional, technological and sociodemographic factors are found to be important determinants of the four aspects of milling. Physical factors include the distance of the mill from major town and availability of storage space at the milling premises, while economic factors include milling charge and backward integration of miller into paddy production. Contracting and use of a single-pass mill are important institutional and technological factors, respectively, and miller's household size, age, gender and education are the key sociodemographic variables.

The study's originality lies in its scope, especially in terms of its breadth. Without compromising the needed analytical rigor, it focuses on four aspects of milling that are critical to improving the marketing of Uganda's rice. In doing so, it provides a holistic understanding of this segment of the value chain and offers specific recommendations for improving the marketing of Uganda's rice.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of rice millers and determine factors influencing cost efficiency in Southwest Nigeria using the cost route approach.

The paper analyses cost efficiency of rice millers using primary data collected from 62 respondents through a structured questionnaire. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed for this purpose. The profile of rice millers and mills were derived using the descriptive analysis. Cost efficiency of the millers was obtained using the quadratic cost function analysis, and Tobit regression was used to determine factors that influence cost efficiency.

The results showed that cost efficiency indexes range from 1 to 57 percent averaging at 20.2 percent. Large rice mills were found to be most efficient with the mean cost efficiency of 25 percent. Paddy, transport and energy costs contributed positively and significantly (p=0.05 and p=0.01) to cost efficiency. Milling capacity and machine age increase cost efficiency while the distance to purchase paddy and quantity of diesel used reduces cost efficiency.

The paper shows that there is enough potential for rice millers to improve their cost efficiency based on the available technology. This has a direct implication on the economy through the increased domestic production and processing of rice to meet the increasing demand for locally produced rice.

The paper attempts to bridge the gap in the literature of cost efficiency among rice millers in Nigeria, and specifically in the application of the normalized quadratic cost function in estimating cost efficiency in the rice milling sector in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the long-run profitability of rice milling operation in Malaysia and see how sensitive it is to changes in paddy purchases, rice recovery ratio and paddy price.

Using a purposive sampling technique and semi-structured interviews, seven rice mills in Malaysia were selected to obtain data on operational details and business accounts. The paper provides a qualitative and descriptive account of the rice mill’s profitability by using cost curves, a simple linear regression and the Monte Carlo simulation.

The rice milling operation in Malaysia is profitable in the long run, provided that there is a market for by-products. Large private mills have lower average costs, helping them obtain higher profit margins. Public mills that receive a rice miller subsidy are more protected than small private mills that operate without the rice miller subsidy and under price controls. Changes in paddy purchases, paddy price and recovery ratio affect the profitability to varying degrees.

Incomplete information provided by the interviewees. The analysis result is only a rough estimate. However, it may provide a useful insight into the Malaysian rice milling sector and its competitiveness.

There are few economic studies of the rice milling sector in Malaysia. However, it plays an important role along the rice supply chain. There is a need for better understanding of the industry in order to obtain economic sustainability and effective policies. This paper provides the gap by providing an insight into the long-run profitability of rice milling operation in Malaysia.

In this study, the impact of owner-operator and non-owner operator rice mills on productive efficiency is investigated.

Primary data collected from a survey of 111 rice mills in the Mwea region of Kenya are used. A metafrontier approach is employed to measure overall technical efficiency which is decomposed into managerial and organisational efficiency.

The results reveal no significant difference in overall technical and managerial efficiency between owner and non-owner operated mills. However, a significant difference exists in organisational efficiency of mills: non-owner operated mills were found to be performing significantly better than owner-operated.

The authors provide supporting evidence to the study and discuss some of the significant policy implications stemming from the study.

It is recognised that for owners to take the risk of divesting control to a hired manager rather than manage the firm themselves can have major strategic, financial and often emotional consequences. However, there is little empirical evidence on how production efficiency will develop as a result of hiring a manager with the underlying economic theory providing ambiguous guidance. Standard economic theory assumes that firms behave as profit maximisers, which can be achieved by operating efficiently. However, this may not always be the case and as the literature indicates, this may especially be so for small businesses in low- and middle-income countries.

Rice landraces are essential for supplying beneficial traits for developing improved rice varieties with better nutritional quality. Nevertheless, in a yield-driven environment, grain nutritional quality has been ignored especially that of rice landraces. Given this, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the content and nutritional variability of rice landraces from Manipur.

Thirty-three most popular rice landraces were collected as dry paddy samples from Manipur and transported to the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, by air. All the paddy samples were processed and analyzed for 35 nutrient parameters using standard methodologies.

The mean nutrient content of Nagaland brown rice was: protein 7.5 ± 0.8, fat 3.0 ± 0.3, TDF 5.5 ± 0.4 and ash 1.2 ± 0.2 g/100g. The range of water soluble-vitamin content in mg/100g, was 0.1–0.43 for Thiamine and for Niacin 2.1–3.5, while the content in µg/100g was 40–64 for Riboflavin, 0.5–3.9 for Pantothenic acid and 20–118 for Pyridoxine. A relatively large coefficient of variation was observed for iron (25%), manganese (28%), copper (32%), calcium (13%) and phosphorus (11%). Manipur rice landraces have significantly higher total dietary fiber and lower phytate contents than modern varieties. Milling led to steep losses of nutrients, and limiting to 5% milling substantially improves nutrient retention in milled rice.

Future nutrition interventions should use rice with superior nutrient quality to improve nutrient intakes. Manipur rice landraces conserved over generations can broaden the genetic base of breeding stocks especially in the face of climate change.

The paper presents comprehensive nutritional data of 33 rice landraces from the state of Manipur, India. The results indicate large nutrient variability even within these 33 rice landraces with important traits such as high total dietary fiber and low phytate contents. The study highlights the importance of conserving the existing rich genetic material of Manipur rice landraces to develop varieties that combine higher yields with stress tolerance and superior grain nutritional value to improve the food and nutrient security.

A geographically proximate group of rice mills, supporting companies, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field is emerging as a concept to make rice mills more competitive. The factors, which emerged due to cluster formation, appear to have the potential to contribute to the performance of rice mills. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of a rice mill cluster initiative. The primary objective is to identify the critical factors of a successful rice mill cluster initiative. To meet this objective, a questionnaire is developed for the assessment of effects of cluster elements.

The methodology used for this paper is an exploratory cross‐sectional and literature review of published materials.

There is strong evidence to suggest that a cluster policy brings additional positive effect to existing small enterprises such as rice mills located in a cluster.

This study offers initial empirical evidence and a number of important insights to assist managers and policy makers in enhancing performance of rice mills located in a cluster. The findings from this research will assist strategy makers in making more informed decisions regarding the adoption of a cluster approach and entering into cluster‐based relations, as well as assisting policy makers in designing more efficient cluster policies. The academic value will be added in the context of expanding knowledge in relation to the impact of clusters on economic development in developing countries and as such contribute in filling gaps within the existing literature.

This paper attempts to understand how the interaction of natural disasters and human behaviour during wartime led to famines in three regions under imperial control around the Indian Ocean. The socio-economic structure of these regions had been increasingly differentiated over the period of imperial rule, with large proportions of their populations relying on agricultural labour for their subsistence.

Before the war, food crises in each of the regions had been met by the private importation of grain from national or overseas surplus regions: the grain had been made available through a range of systems, the most complex of which was the Bengal Famine Code in which the able-bodied had to work before receiving money to buy food in the market.

During the Second World War, the loss of control of normal sources of imported grain, the destruction of shipping in the Indian Ocean (by both sides) and the military demands on internal transport systems prevented the use of traditional famine responses when natural events affected grain supply in each of the regions. These circumstances drew the governments into attempts to control their own grain markets.

The food crises raised complex ethical and practical issues for the governments charged with their solution. The most significant of these was that the British Government could have attempted to ship wheat to Bengal but, having lost naval control of the Indian Ocean in 1942 and needing warships in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in 1943 chose to ignore the needs of the people of Bengal, focussing instead on winning the war.

In each of the regions governments allowed/encouraged the balkanisation of the grain supply – at times down to the sub-district level – which at times served to produce waste and corruption, and opened the way for black markets as various groups (inside and outside government ranks) manipulated the local supply.

People were affected in different ways by the changes brought about by the war: some benefitted if their role was important to the war-effort; others suffered. The effect of this was multiplied by the way each government ‘solved’ its financial problems by – in essence – printing money.

Because of the natural events of the period, there would have been food crises in these regions without World War II, but decisions made in the light of wartime exigencies and opportunities turned crises into famines, causing the loss of millions of lives.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare consumer perceptions of unpolished pigmented rice and milled white rice between unfamiliar and typical consumers.

This study first employed focus groups to explore attitudes and habits relating to rice consumption among British subjects. A sensory descriptive analysis method, flash profiling (FP), was then applied on consumer panels in the UK and Thailand to gain perceived sensory quality of unfamiliar and typical rice samples. The sensory profiles generated by British and Thai panellists were analysed by generalised procrustean analysis (GPA) and compared based on perceived attributes, dominant characteristics and repeatability.

Focus group results suggested that consumer familiarity with rice might influence preferred rice textural quality. The prominent textures of stickiness and bittiness of unpolished pigmented rice were negatively associated with perceived quality in the UK participants. The sensory profiles generated by GPA consisted of similarity with darkness of colour and sweet/earthy type odours that are key dominant characteristics of the Thai pigmented rice.

The research has provided sensory information of the unpolished pigmented rice as compared with milled white rice. The information gives insights on product development directions for export and further research on rice processing and cooking instructions.

This study is the first to apply sensory evaluation in a cross-cultural comparison of pigmented rice.

In spite of the government’s support for small-scale rice farmers in rural areas of Thailand, several problems still affect their production and marketing performance. This study aims to assess a rice production community enterprise (RPCE) through an in-depth investigation of its problems and capabilities; and formulate internal strategic guidelines for enterprise development.

This study used a qualitative approach through in-depth interviews with the community enterprise leader and committee members, and focus group discussion with eight farmer-members, purposively selected in Chachoengsao, Thailand. Data were transcribed, sorted and organised to determine themes and patterns. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths (TOWS) matrix situational analyses were done to develop strategic options. Strategic guidelines were formulated through a final deliberation with all members to ensure strategies aligned with the enterprise’s goals and objectives.

The results have identified three main problem categories encountered by the community enterprise in the areas of membership and labour; production and milling operations; and product design and marketing. The enterprise’s main strengths and opportunities include its product certifications and support from external organisations. Strategic points were developed, and policy support programmes are recommended for capacity building and product development as most problems identified relate to these aspects.

The utility of this study is its focus on an RPCE. The findings will help policymakers and concerned government agencies implement better programmes and policies to develop RPCEs. Furthermore, this study will be a source for future qualitative literature that will provide helpful information to other studies aiming to develop other types of community enterprises (CEs).