In the Philippines where rice is the staple crop, rice hull “ipa” or “tahop” as they are locally known for, is a common sight.
To rice millers who don’t know of other uses, they just dump them that form a big pile at their backyard and consider them discards while awaiting for takers.
Some people use rice hull as a litter for brooding chicks in their poultry houses. Others used them as insulated covering for a block of ice in order not to get easily melted away.
Some people use them in egg incubation for making “balut” a delicacy in the Philippines that they boiled the eggs after it has incubated them for 18 days. However, the majority of people used them as filling materials to level it off and elevate the contour of their land.
Despite the many uses mentioned, this cannot still match up the to big volume of rice hulls that the rice millers are producing, so for them it remains as a big disposal issue.
With the advent of carbonized rice hull, it has becoming increasingly popular due to the several benefits that have been brought in and more people opt the opportunity to use them at their advantage.
Carbonized rice hull is produced through regulated burning of raw rice hull with the absence of oxygen so that it will not be converted to ash.
Carbonized rice hull has been found to be sterile and free from disease organisms. It has been highly recommended by Dr. Sumaoang, a Filipino microbiologist as an ideal litter for brooding chicks in poultry instead the usual raw rice hull.
Being sterile, carbonized rice hull minimizes disease contamination. It readily absorbs the moisture in the manure so the litter does not get moist and not attractive to flies. When the litter is treated with enzyme (Biosec) formulated by Dr. Sumaoang, odor from manure is eliminated.
The enzymes breakdown the nutrients found in manure into simpler forms that could be readily absorbed by plants. When the brooding is over, the litter would become an organic fertilizer that can be available in fertilizing crops.
It was also explain that the enzyme (Biosec) is a combination of live but immobilized beneficial microorganisms and digestive enzymes.
Once applied, the beneficial microorganisms multiply rapidly, inhibiting the growth of disease causing organisms like E. coli, salmonella and others.
Moreover, it was also observed that chicks grown on carbonized rice hull, grow faster and they are more uniform in sizes and they are healthier because there’s no proliferation of harmful organisms that often cause respiratory diseases and diarrhea.
Appropriate quantity of carbonized rice hull when combined with organic fertilizer or compost can be applied to a hectare of land preparation. This will make the land not only more porous for better plant growth, it will also enable the soil to retain the moisture much longer which is advantageous when there is a prolong dry season.
Herewith, are some other beneficial uses of carbonized rice hull:
*** It produces more profuse tillers, more stems of rice will bear fruit and that means higher yield.
*** It is used in seedbed for bulk seedlings to be transplanted later on. Easy to pull out without damaging the roots which can be adoptable in the field readily during the transplantation process.
*** It can be very useful in growing high value vegetables, herbs even they are grown in containers.
*** It is also useful in ornamental horticulture industry because it minimizes fungal infection that has plagued the industry.
