No.44 Impacts of Management Training of Rice Millers on their Business Performance: Evidence from the Senegal River Valley

This study examines the impact of a management training program implemented by a JICA project on the performance of rice millers in the Senegal River Valley. Using panel data of 90 millers that commenced operations prior to the project, we apply a difference-in-differences approach to assess changes in equipment and facility use, paddy procurement, marketing, and business performance. Results show that trained small-scale millers were more likely to invest in graders, moisture meters, and storage facilities. In addition, they increased volumes of paddy procurement and tended to sell rice in urban markets. However, improvements in profitability were limited, which we attribute to higher procurement costs and insignificant increases in the sales price. Heterogeneity analysis reveals an inverse U-shaped relationship between initial miller size and training impact, with the strongest effects observed among medium-scale millers with milling capacities of 2–3 t/h. These findings suggest that capacity-building efforts should target medium-scale operators and include policies to promote investment in milling capacity. This study contributes to the literature on rice value chain upgrading in sub-Saharan Africa and offers practical insights for designing more effective training interventions in the rice milling sector.

Keywords: Rice milling, Management training, Rice value chain, Sub-Saharan Africa, Senegal