In order to cater to the increasing demand of rice, it is necessary to raise the average yield of paddy and quality of paddy significantly through best practices in planning, sourcing and delivery stages of the rice supply chain activities. The choice of reference processes during the design phase is of utmost importance for a paddy supply chains‟ overall performance. Applicability of various supply chain reference models in the agriculture domain will be discussed for the purpose of presenting a reference model for the rice sector with existing best practice related to the seed, fertilizer, water, labour and technology factors. In this research main objective is to identify planning and sourcing best practice of the rice supply chain and create best practice reference model as a collaborative tool for the rice sector. The survey was conducted in “Pollonnaruwa district” with the participants of farmers and agriculture officers to identify current best practices. The result indicate the presence of key success factor of the rice supply chain still in the initial stage and needs of the operational strategy for fulfillment of the existing gaps of the rice supply chain with best practices.

Keywords

Rice supply chain, Best practice, Reference model