Centralized drying

Economics of scale in drying can often only be reached through centralized dryers in a strategic location whaere enough paddy can be collected to be dried in a machine with sufficient capacity. Centralized drying can be done by farmers’ cooperatives or small contract operators at village level, at local rice mills or at collection points in the trading system (mainly for second stage drying, see below). Owners of centralized dryers usually have better access to quality markets than farmers or they benefit directly from better quality of the dried rice, e.g. if the dryer is installed in a rice mill.