How to Earn Money from Rice Husks
After harvesting rice, many farmers just let their rice husks rot or burn them. This is very unfortunate as rice husks have many uses. They can be used to make paper packaging, fertilizer, charcoal, animal feed and so on. A rice farmer or someone who have access to rice husks stand to make money if they can properly sell them to the right customers.
What happens if you do not properly dispose of your rice husk?
Letting Rice Husks Rot:
If you just let them rot, they would produce methane. Methane can be very harmful in large quantities. They contribute to the “Greenhouse Effect” which absorbs the heat of the sun causing an area to warm up. This is why methane is considered a greenhouse gas.
High levels of methane can also absorb oxygen in the air which can result in breathing difficulties in people. Breathing difficulties can cause many negative effects in people affecting the brain. This can in turn affect the body like increasing the heart rate.
Insects and rodents can also dwell in rotting rice husks. This would create a pest infestation especially if the rotting rice husks are near the home or in the farm where they can feed on food meant for humans.
Besides a possible pest infestation, there is also the manner of being attacked by venomous animals. Rats that live on rotting rice husks can multiply fast and not only eat food meant for humans but bite both humans and other animals. We can also add snakes to the list of dangerous animals which might live in rotting rice husks.
Burning Rice Husks:
There are farmers who collect their rice husks and burn them. There are also farmers who just burn their rice husks right in the rice fields after harvesting rice. Burning anything causes the release of Carbon Dioxide.
Like methane, it has negative effects on the health of people. It negatively affect the brain causing dizziness and headaches and so on. It also affect the lungs which causes difficulty in breathing, elevates heart rate and blood pressure and so on.
It also traps heat in the environment contributing to climate change. It also causes pollution. Carbon dioxide particles can pollute not only human food but animal food as well. Drinking water can also get polluted by carbon dioxide.
As you can see, improper disposal of rice husks is not only potentially dangerous for the environment but for people as well. You might not want to make money from rice husks but improper disposal of it can cause you money in terms of health and environmental costs.
Selling Rice Husk as a Raw Material for Paper Pulp
Dried agricultural products are used as raw materials for paper pulp. This includes different kinds of plant husks like wheat and rice husks. Many businesses around the world are supplying processed dried plant husks by the sackful to factories around the globe.
This includes processed rice husks. For example if you go to Alibaba and searched for “rice husk ash” or “rice husk powder” you would see many listing of such products. They are sold by the bags and by the ton.
This is the most basic way you can earn money from rice husk. But is it really just a matter of grinding the rice husk until it becomes a powder, putting it in a sack and then selling it? Unfortunately, it is not as straightforward as this.
A Company In Thailand:
There may be additional steps you might have to do to process the risk husk before you are sell it to your client. For example, if you were selling it to a company that makes biodegradable food packaging you might need to first boil in water the rice husk.
There is a YouTube video from German news channel DW which precisely shows this:
Video: Thailand: Turning straw into gold | Global Ideas
In the video it shows the rice husk processing business of a woman entrepreneur. It clearly shows that processing rice husks so that they can become raw materials for biodegradable food packaging is not complex and can be done with simple processes and tools.
The rice husks are first made into powder, then it is boiled for several hours, dried and then bagged. It is important to note that this process does not use any chemicals. This is both safe and costs less.
There might be nothing more special about the video except that the video shows how humble is the beginning of the business. The woman entrepreneur perfected her process using nothing more than her grandparent’s basic cooking materials.
This means that her process can be duplicated by anyone even in their own homes. Of course this process is not a big secret there are other videos in YouTube which shows similar process in preparing rice husks.
Near the end of the video, the entrepreneur gave us a hint of how big the business could be. She does not have her own machines to produce the biodegradable food packaging herself but instead she sells her processed rice husks to Indian companies.
India is an agricultural country and you would think that there would be an abundance of rice husks from local farmers but apparently there is enough demand that Indian companies have to buy processed rice husks from overseas.
A Company in India:
From Thailand let us go to India where the woman entrepreneur from Thailand sends her processed rice husks.
I have another video from The Better India which shows a more integrated process:
Video: Bio-lutions - Agricultural Waste to Biodegradable Cartons & Tableware
This video shows a more complete picture of a biodegradable food packaging process. As usual it shows plant husks being turned into powder, then boiled the powder is boiled with water and turned into a paste using no chemicals.
Next, the paste is shaped into paper food containers using machines that compress paste material into thin paper food containers. The last process is drying the newly formed paper food container.
I did a check on how much a hand operated paper plate machine costs in India. It costs about $250 in Trade India, an Indian e-commerce site. This is not such a big amount even by developing nation standards.
So one can start a paper plate business from rice husks for a relatively low amount of money since the machine that makes the plate is very affordable. Machines that can make rice husk into powder can also be cheaply bought.
The powder can be boiled using ordinary kitchen utensils like a big pot. Ordinary water is used to boil the powder and no chemical is used. All in all, the processing of rice husks can be done inexpensively. Add to this the possibility of having free rice husks direct from farmers who have no use for them.
A Company In China
Next we go to China where we see a really large scale manufacturing process for turning rice husks to biodegradable plates and trays and who knows what else.
The video is from Husks Eco-friendly Houseware and is titled:
Video: Rice Husks Dinnerware,100% Biodegradable, No BPA, Toxin Free, No Melamine, No Heavy Metals.
This video shows more complex products being made from rice husks. Although the products are also plates and other dinnerware, they are evidently of higher quality. This could be your company when you have fully scaled up.
But this does not mean that you also must have a large scale operation that utilizes hitech and expensive machines that needs also a large manufacturing facility. Your business can be a scaled down version using less expensive machines and a smaller facility.
But you can see the potential of rice husks now being turned to pulp paper. There are many products that can be made from pulp paper and not just paper plates or tray. You can manufacture thick paper, sheets of thin paper, cardboard and so on from rice husks.
Rice Husk as Plant Fertilizer
If you have no option but to burn rice husk then let it be a productive one. One of the products you can derive from burned rice husk is as a plant fertilizer. There are many videos in YouTube that shows entrepreneurs making a business out of burned rice husk fertilizer.
But there is one video I found which might be ideal for the single entrepreneur. Her process might also prevent you from causing your neighbors aggravation if they happen to be in the path of the smoke produced by the burning rice husks.
The video is from The Boo Organic Gardener. It is titled:
Video: How to make carbonized rice husk for plant fertilizer
In this video she burns a sack of rice husk that has been turned into a powder. She created a slow burning process which is not dangerous. She also created an improvised chimney so she can control the smoke coming out of her slow burning rice husk.
It is a relatively safe process and is perfect for a small scale setup. You can do this even if you only have a small space and have neighbors near you as the smoke can be controlled. As you can see from her video, she does this at her backyard.
Rice Husks as Cheaper Charcoal Alternative
I have another video where it shows how using rice husk properly can benefit not only the environment but the people as well.
The video is from 25 DEGREES STUDIO and is titled:
Video: Rice Husk Briquette Taking the Place of Traditional Coal in Myanmar
Though the rice husks are still burned when the people use them, they are the better alternative to the other option which is wood from the jungle. Rice husk effectively prevented the jungle from being destroyed. They prevented trees from being cut into firewood.
The video shows that rice husk briquettes are also the cheaper option as compared to conventional coal which used wood taken from jungle trees. So we can say that this is a win-win situation.
This kind of business is best suited for companies that cater to rural areas where the people still use traditional methods of cooking and where the supply of rice husk is abundant. The video also shows that the business can be done using simple processes and equipment.
Rice Husk as Animal Feed
Rice husks once turned into powder can also be used for animal feed. I have seen articles online that state that pigs, chickens and horses as well as other animals can be fed with rice husks.
I have also seen a short video which shows how rice husk can be turned into animal feed. The video was made by the channel Unseen Moment and is titled:
Video: Fumigation Of Rice Husk For Broiler Breeder Farm | By Formalin | Episode 07 | 2020
The video shows Formalin being lightly applied to powdered rice husk and then just covered. This is how easy it is to prepare animal feed made out of rice husk.
I would leave you to be the judge whether or not formalin is safe as an animal feed ingredient.
Another thing to note is that in the e-commerce store Alibaba, you can find rice straws being sold as animal feed. This means that you can even skip the process of converting rice husk to powder.
This is even a much simpler business. You do not have to pay for labor or machines to convert rice husk into powder. It also lessens your processing time.
This is the reason why I have saved this information for last. In this kind of business, you only need to gather the rice husk and ensure that they are safe to sell. Of course, you also need to find a buyer first.
Conclusion
Disposing rice husk by letting them rot or burning them is hazardous to human health and the environment. Rather than disposing them, you can process rice husk into raw materials for making biodegradable paper products like food packaging.
You can also make them into fertilizer and coal by burning them the correct way. The correct way to burn them does little damage to the environment and human health. Burning them the correct way also results to cheaper fertilizer and coal which benefits consumers.
Lastly, they could be used as animal feed. They can be fed to pigs, chickens, horses and many more animals. They can be fed in many forms: powder, pellet, straw and so on.
There is no reason why people should waste rice husks when it can bring in good money and even a profitable business.
You might also like to read the article: Money From Boiled Corn.