Podcast
Episode 18: Univ. of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture
In this episode, Dr. Griffiths G. Atungulu and his graduate assistant, Abass Oduola, from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, join The Drip by AQUALAB to discuss their groundbreaking research on rice production. As Arkansas remains a key hub for U.S. rice cultivation, their work focuses on optimizing quality and efficiency through water activity and moisture sorption isotherms. Tune in to learn how their research is shaping the future of rice storage, processing, and overall industry advancements.
About the guest
Dr. Griffiths G. Atungulu is a leading researcher at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, specializing in postharvest technology and grain processing. His work focuses on improving rice quality and storage through advanced moisture management techniques. Assisting him is Abass Oduola, a dedicated graduate researcher contributing to innovations in water activity and moisture sorption isotherms. Together, they are advancing Arkansas’ rice industry through cutting-edge agricultural research.
Transcript
I'm Zachary Cartwright this is water in
0:02
food you know when it comes to Something
0:04
Like Rice drying you're dealing with
0:05
movement of moisture from within the
0:07
rise to the outside environment this
0:09
area of research holds huge promise no
0:12
doubts in making
0:14
um our Foods more safe there is great
0:17
need to come up with techniques that not
0:20
only can optimize the yield but can also
0:23
increase the value of rice that is
0:25
harvested welcome back to another
0:27
episode of water and food today I'm
0:30
joined by Dr Griffiths atun Gulu and his
0:32
graduate student Abbas odula to discuss
0:35
the rice processing program at the
0:37
University of Arkansas Dr antu gulu's
0:40
background is in agricultural
0:42
engineering while a boss is working
0:44
towards a PhD in cellular and molecular
0:46
biology let's hear what they have to say
0:48
on water and food thank you both for
0:51
being here today and happy Friday how
0:53
are you guys doing
0:55
uh well we are doing very well thank you
0:57
very much for having us
0:59
of course and Abbas what about you how
1:01
are you
1:02
I'm very well thank you so much for for
1:05
this of course I've been helping to get
1:08
a uh some University some University
1:10
members on the podcast for a while and
1:12
then I'm happy to have you guys as the
1:14
first podcast guest coming from the
1:18
University of Arkansas uh can you tell
1:20
me how long you've been at the
1:22
University of Arkansas Dr tugulo and
1:24
what brought you to this University how
1:26
did you end up there
1:29
oh thank you thank you very much uh for
1:31
the opportunity yes uh at the University
1:34
I've been at the University of Arkansas
1:36
for close to eight she has now almost
1:40
going nine and uh before moving here I
1:43
was at the University of California
1:44
Davis and uh at the University of
1:47
Arkansas my area of expertise is primary
1:50
in uh grain processing and post Harvest
1:53
systems engineering and I'm a professor
1:55
here at the same time I'm also uh the
1:58
interim director of our University of
2:00
Arkansas rice processing program and so
2:03
like I mentioned uh my area is in is in
2:05
grains and Arkansas is one of the green
2:09
hubs of the United States we have a lot
2:11
of rise in fact produce 50 percent of
2:14
the U.S rice and so conducting research
2:16
in this place is a very very uh a good
2:19
area for my kind of training and so
2:23
that's what I do conduct research and
2:25
also teach at the same time
2:28
and uh you guys are just starting your
2:29
semester now what's that look like for
2:31
you or are you teaching in person or are
2:33
you back online what what kind of system
2:36
do you guys have for this upcoming
2:37
semester
2:40
well we have all types of systems going
2:42
on here really uh we have uh primarily
2:46
face to face we decided to come back to
2:48
face to face but of course we are giving
2:51
our allowances for a few cases where we
2:54
may have to implement hybrid systems uh
2:58
there's good flexibility and uh good
3:00
coordination from the administration for
3:02
us to offer students the learning
3:04
environment that will be provide them
3:06
with the highest level of education but
3:08
at the same time maintain uh the highest
3:10
level of safety where their health is
3:12
concerned
3:14
and a bus what about you how long have
3:16
you been at uh the University of
3:18
Arkansas and working on your PhD
3:22
um thank you first of all um I'm very
3:25
happy to be here today
3:26
and I've been working on my PhD for
3:29
about three years now
3:31
I joined Hotel singulus lab in the fall
3:33
of 2018.
3:35
so I'm just starting my fourth year
3:38
for my PhD program
3:43
how much more do you have for your PhD
3:47
well it's hard to tell for any um every
3:50
PhD program but
3:52
I believe with hard work and hope
3:56
um the hand is inside
3:57
and what brought you to uh the specific
4:00
University how did you find Dr Alton
4:03
gulu's lab and and what excited you
4:05
about working with him
4:07
well before I moved to the United States
4:10
in the fall of 2018 so
4:13
I am originally from Nigeria
4:15
so I was searching for schools in the
4:17
U.S my keywords were the research I'm
4:21
interested in
4:23
came up
4:25
and I reached out to him and we had um
4:28
several meetings
4:30
so after a while I realized that what
4:32
he's doing is a perfect fit for my
4:35
current and future goals
4:37
and um to answer that Fayetteville is
4:41
ranked a fourth best place to live in in
4:44
America
4:45
and again we have a lot of rise in
4:47
Arkansas so it's a win-win situation for
4:50
me
4:51
well perfect and uh uh Dr Adam tugulo I
4:54
understand that you are working with the
4:56
rice processing program what is this
4:59
program and what's the goal of it
5:02
thank you very much so uh maybe just a
5:06
brief history you know
5:08
I can't mention the rice processing
5:10
program Without Really mentioning our
5:12
founder
5:13
and the first director of the program
5:15
who was 37 Morgan uh 37 Morgan uh
5:19
conducted a lot of research in the area
5:21
of rice post Harvest processing and in
5:24
1994 uh
5:27
he established the University of
5:29
Arkansas rights processing program and
5:32
uh the primary goal really was to
5:34
conduct research in the areas of
5:36
pre-harvest physiology
5:38
drying of rice Milling storage and use
5:42
processing and sensory analysis that
5:45
would address the needs of the U.S
5:46
industry and the ultimate goal of this
5:51
basically was to enhance the quality and
5:53
the value of rice and rice products and
5:55
that's uh We've mentioned you know we
5:57
have a lot of rice we produce most of
5:58
the rice in the U.S we have different
6:01
cultivars of rice and you can agree with
6:03
me that there's great need to come up
6:07
with techniques that not only can
6:09
optimize the yield but can also increase
6:12
the value of rice that is harvested
6:14
preserve it from editoriation and make
6:17
sure that uh the producer gets the
6:19
highest returns out of the commodity and
6:22
so that's what we do uh after its
6:26
establishment Industries have come on
6:29
board and become sponsors of the program
6:31
we have several industries that sponsor
6:35
their program and uh what they do is
6:37
they give us feedback on what are the
6:39
research needs and we conduct research
6:42
in coordination with our students and
6:44
then at the end of the day we release
6:46
those results back to them so that they
6:48
can Implement them to improve their
6:50
processing I would say that every year
6:54
in May we hold an annual meeting at
6:58
which our students provide feedback in
7:01
terms of presentations and uh we also
7:03
get some feedback from the audience and
7:06
so that is the nature of the program
7:08
that has grown to become very impactful
7:10
I think one of its kind in the U.S and
7:13
maybe one of the leading rice processing
7:15
programs in the world
7:17
and Abbas how are you contributing to
7:20
this program what what is your research
7:21
focused on and
7:23
um how are you giving back to this
7:25
program
7:27
um thank you so much for that
7:29
um
7:30
kind of mentioned about the diversity
7:33
and different areas of rice research
7:36
University of Arkansas
7:38
well as further as far as my research is
7:40
concerned I'm focused on the microbial
7:42
safety of rice
7:44
I'm talking about bacteria and fungi
7:47
so my research is actually focused on
7:50
narrowing down to mycotoxin
7:52
contamination on rice
7:54
so we use different
7:56
um
7:57
novel equipment such as microwave and
8:00
infrared to dry and disinfect your eyes
8:03
so that our rice will be free of amfu
8:06
fungi and toxin
8:10
and how are you conducting your research
8:12
and maybe you both can answer this
8:14
question are you doing research in the
8:17
lab are you partnering with farmers in
8:19
the area what does that look like
8:23
yeah so if I may jump into that you know
8:26
that almost three
8:29
ways that we conduct research number one
8:33
uh like I mentioned we are in an
8:35
engineering area and we do a lot of
8:37
modeling and simulation of situations
8:40
that cannot necessarily be uh
8:43
done experimentally and so we have a lot
8:46
of computational mathematical models
8:48
that we develop and build most of them
8:51
are around heat and mass transport you
8:55
know when it comes to Something Like
8:56
Rice drying or dealing with movement of
8:58
moisture from within the rice to the
9:00
outside environment and so uh it's very
9:03
important sometimes we do a lot of
9:05
modeling you know how that Rice moves
9:07
from the center of the rice all the way
9:09
outside it's very hard to do a
9:12
measurement and so mathematical modeling
9:14
becomes very very important in those
9:16
kind of diffusion type of research once
9:20
we do those models of course we do
9:22
validation in terms of validation we
9:25
definitely have to set up some
9:27
experiments in the lab that capture the
9:31
design that we try to model and then
9:33
validate those models and typically
9:36
after we do those validation which are
9:38
pretty much experimental in the lab the
9:41
goal is to implement some of this
9:42
techniques or the results in the
9:44
industry and so we have to coordinate
9:47
our lives with the industry partners and
9:51
see how we can Implement some of this or
9:54
test them on a larger scale some of this
9:57
might involve equipment development it
9:59
might start from maybe just deciding on
10:01
the computer to building it in the lab
10:03
and then finally trying to implement it
10:05
at a higher scale to meet the kind of
10:08
throughputs or space footprint
10:10
requirements environmental footprint
10:13
requirement that the industry might be
10:15
needing so I would say we address
10:17
research in three stages number one we
10:19
do mathematical modeling we do lab-based
10:22
research to prove some of those medical
10:23
models and then we also try to scale up
10:27
these techniques working in conjunction
10:29
with the industry partners
10:32
so you're doing uh some modeling some
10:34
lab research as well as some field
10:36
trousers is that correct
10:38
excellent yes and uh you you briefly
10:41
mentioned moisture there and a boss I'm
10:43
wondering if you are using moisture in
10:45
your research and if you're using water
10:46
activity as a measurement and if so how
10:49
are you taking those water activity
10:51
measurements and why are they important
10:54
um thank you so in any microbial work
10:56
moisture and water activity is a very
10:59
important
11:00
to determine the growth rate of
11:02
microorganisms on food matrices
11:05
so for sure moisture and water activity
11:08
are very important for me
11:10
so we have an equipment called repos
11:13
option analyzer simply put VSA
11:17
that we acquire from your company Aqua
11:20
lab
11:20
and this equipment has been of great use
11:22
in
11:24
um determining moisture content and what
11:27
activity
11:29
and how we can use that to limit or
11:32
address microbial growth on rice
11:35
so you're using the the aqua lab VSA to
11:39
create isotherms and then you're using
11:41
that to to predict if microbial growth
11:44
can occur is that correct right so that
11:47
kind of give us an indication of what
11:49
could happen over time
11:50
so like my advice I mention of that
11:53
single mentioned we still need to do
11:55
some storage to actually see
11:57
experimentally what is going on over
12:00
time
12:01
um and also I also heard in one of your
12:04
previous podcasts about the aqua lamp
12:07
40e equipment
12:09
and I kind of mentioned about the
12:11
academic discounts
12:13
and I think that is what we at some
12:16
point we want to explore the opportunity
12:18
yeah meter group has definitely made it
12:21
an effort uh or a point to work with
12:24
universities like you guys and lots of
12:26
other universities because I think it is
12:29
um important for you guys to have the
12:30
best tools that are out there so that
12:32
you can measure water activity or create
12:34
isotherms in a lot of what you do drives
12:37
the industry and they see what you're
12:39
doing and so
12:41
um we're always happy to partner with
12:43
universities like like you guys
12:45
um Dr otungulo what else do you hope to
12:48
to do with these isotherms are you
12:49
looking at shelf life are you looking at
12:52
physical properties of the rice what is
12:55
your focus with this type of data
12:59
uh
13:00
like I mentioned in the in the beginning
13:02
you know we when you come to processing
13:04
of rice rice is harvested at uh about 21
13:08
percent Malaysia content to 23 moisture
13:11
contents ideally we need to remove
13:14
moisture out of that rice and bring it
13:16
down to about uh 12.5 percent or 13
13:19
moisture content uh when you are
13:22
removing this moisture the rate at which
13:24
moisture is removed is very very
13:25
critical to the Integrity of the rice
13:27
kernel uh and the temperature at which
13:31
you're removing it is also very very
13:32
critical to the material state gradients
13:35
within the rice Cannon as you know our
13:37
rice is composed primarily of starch and
13:40
as the moisture reduces uh the material
13:43
changes uh from one state to the other
13:46
and those transitions are very very
13:50
important to pick when you're doing your
13:52
drying process because if you don't do
13:54
it right uh there's some things we call
13:56
fissures or in general terms they call
13:59
them small cracks those cracks when they
14:02
are established within the rice kernel
14:04
which has to go through a Milling
14:06
process the rice kind of tend to weaken
14:09
mechanically and when the rice kind of
14:11
weakens mechanically it breaks during
14:13
the meeting process that breakage is
14:16
something that the producer does not
14:17
want to see because
14:19
the producer is paid based on the total
14:22
volume of head rise where head rise is
14:25
The Unbroken rice or rice kernel that is
14:28
about 70 five percent in length of the
14:31
original a milled rice and so these
14:34
isotherms are very important for us
14:36
number one to establish other moisture
14:39
relationship between
14:41
uh the temperature and the material
14:44
properties you know during the drying
14:46
process or during the storage process to
14:49
minimize things like fissure formation
14:51
and also as a bus has mentioned to
14:53
minimize any potential microbial growth
14:55
because in a form of microbial growth
14:57
again weakens the rice kernel makes it
15:00
to fissure during any any drying process
15:04
but most importantly you know uh we also
15:08
want to be able to avoid mycotoxins that
15:11
could form on the rice Canal after the
15:14
whole process of drying and this
15:16
mycotoxin could form on a whole Canal or
15:18
it could form on male rice flour and so
15:21
those are some of the things that we are
15:24
trying to use the vapor absorption
15:25
analyzer to understand the relationships
15:28
between the material the temperature and
15:33
the moisture of the water activity
15:34
within the material
15:36
uh self-love prediction very very
15:38
important for us especially uh I'm sure
15:41
you are now familiar with the what we
15:43
call Mini tries or instant rice or
15:47
individually cook frozen rice this is
15:49
rice that has been pre-cooked and uh
15:52
once it's been pre-cooked it is packed
15:55
and uh the cons all the consumer need to
15:58
do is to get it and put it in the
15:59
microwave and then consume it the
16:02
self-life of this kind of commodity is
16:04
becoming very very critical for the
16:06
consumer and mostly when you mix them
16:08
with different ingredients you may throw
16:10
in some spices in uh when you're doing
16:12
your processing that changes the entire
16:15
Matrix of rice and throws in a
16:18
completely different equation in terms
16:19
of how that rice is going to interact
16:21
with the moisture valuable and interact
16:23
with the with the with the packaging
16:25
material that you have and so
16:27
understanding things like
16:29
uh the moisture characteristics in those
16:32
kind of packaging environments that we
16:34
are putting instant rice is very very
16:36
critical for us and the VSA is one of
16:38
those tools that is really really
16:40
helpful in terms of predicting the safe
16:41
life of different mattresses of food
16:44
rice mixed with different ingredients
16:47
cooked in different uh styles
16:50
and so just beside understanding the
16:52
first transitions that help us control
16:54
fissuring I just understand getting idea
16:57
on the isotherm that help us to predict
16:59
uh the shelf life and and also the
17:02
packaging requirement is one of those
17:04
things that I think we are benefiting a
17:06
lot from uh the VSA technique of
17:08
measuring isotopes
17:11
and when that Rice cracking happens
17:13
what's the economic impact is uh does
17:17
the the farmer or the the processor do
17:19
they have to get rid of that product do
17:21
they have to use it for something else
17:23
what kind of financial impact are you
17:26
seeing with these types of problems what
17:29
it is huge it's huge I just to give you
17:31
an estimate right now when you have rice
17:34
it comes in a in a rough rice form that
17:36
is before you remove the hull uh the
17:39
price of that is about three to four uh
17:42
Bush uh dollars per bushel of rice now
17:46
when you meal that rice if you get whole
17:49
milk rice then it it's about nine
17:51
dollars per bushel of rice that is whole
17:55
kernels that are just milled uh this
17:57
without any fishes but if there occurs
18:01
any fish on that right in rice cracks
18:03
the economic value of that Rice drops to
18:06
almost by almost 60 percent so from nine
18:10
dollars uh per bushel now you are
18:13
talking about 40 percent of that is the
18:16
return that you are getting and these
18:18
Farmers produce several bushels of rice
18:20
uh thousands and thousands of bushes of
18:24
rice and so if you factor in about a 60
18:26
reduction in in your income it is huge
18:30
and uh of course there's a way they are
18:33
able to leverage or get some benefit out
18:36
of that broken rice by taking it to
18:38
maybe the animal feed Industries or to
18:40
the fly Industries or to the Pet Food
18:43
Industries but in general it is a 80 an
18:46
economic loss so any the Improvement
18:49
that you can make on the head rise yield
18:52
to the farmer really really improves
18:54
their bottom line and that is one of the
18:56
key areas that you're doing research in
18:59
preserving the headline they were
19:01
talking major dollars it sounds like to
19:04
to have this issue and and
19:07
um I'll be interested to see your
19:08
research and see how you're able to use
19:10
isotherms to to make some predictions
19:12
not only on shelf life but also on the
19:15
types of packaging that you should be
19:16
using a boss I know we've been talking a
19:19
lot about rice and that's what your
19:21
research is focused on but what other
19:23
products can can benefit from this type
19:25
of research
19:29
um can you take that again I'm sorry
19:30
yeah yeah I'm just curious you know
19:32
we've been talking a lot about rice and
19:34
and these specific problems for rice but
19:36
are there other grains and maybe other
19:38
products that you see your research in
19:41
and the work of the the rice processing
19:43
program where else can this information
19:45
be used to benefit different products
19:48
all right thank you
19:51
um so as I mentioned we have two Nova
19:54
techniques we use in the lab
19:55
um which are microwave eating system and
19:59
inferiorating system so we've used these
20:01
two system majorly for rice but also
20:04
we've also used it for corn
20:06
and can be used for many other grains
20:09
out there or any other food products
20:12
that needs to be dried after harvesting
20:15
um and to
20:17
prevent microbial or toxin production on
20:19
them so this area of research holds huge
20:23
problems no doubts in making
20:26
um our Foods more safe
20:29
and to limit the production of toxin in
20:32
human food pet food and other animal
20:34
feed food
20:36
and a bus what's next for you are you
20:39
wrapping up some projects are you
20:40
starting new projects
20:42
um what do the the next couple years for
20:44
you in school look like and what do you
20:46
hope to do after school
20:48
um so
20:50
in the immediate I'll say
20:52
one next is to keep generating good
20:55
quality data for my advisor doesn't
20:58
Google here
21:00
and the long run for sure I'll still be
21:03
focusing on carrying out the research on
21:05
rice and other grains because I'm really
21:08
interested in the mycotoxin part of
21:11
grains so I can easily extend that into
21:14
rice corn with sorghum whatever you
21:19
so
21:20
um I hope to wrap up my PhD in about two
21:23
years from now
21:24
and then do you plan to to stay in this
21:27
uh type of industry and in grains or do
21:29
you plan to go back home what do you
21:32
think uh the future holds for you
21:36
um it's hard to predict the future but
21:37
for now I'll say
21:40
um the area of research or
21:44
trying to find out after toxin or other
21:47
mycotoxin on grains holds huge formulas
21:51
I've mentioned so there are a lot of
21:53
questions to answer
21:55
and I'll be more than willing and be
21:58
happy to go into that and see what I
22:01
find out
22:02
and what about you Dr uh
22:05
what's next for you are you going to
22:07
continue focusing on This research and
22:09
continue to your time at University of
22:11
Arkansas
22:12
what do you see in the next couple years
22:14
uh for yourself
22:18
yes thank you I think more than ever uh
22:20
I'm going to continue uh putting a lot
22:24
of emphasis on Rice related research
22:26
like I mentioned rice is a primary
22:28
primary commodity here in Arkansas we
22:31
are seeing a lot of needs you're seeing
22:33
a huge uh impact even in the breeding
22:36
areas which means new cultivars are
22:38
coming every year as with improved
22:40
attributes and those still need a lot of
22:43
attention in terms of post Harvest
22:45
systems engineering research and so my
22:48
emphasis is still continuing to kind of
22:50
double down in that line I want to
22:52
produce more of a bus basically by doing
22:54
more of teaching and training of
22:56
graduate students and I believe when
22:58
they do when they succeed they go out
23:00
there they become a significant resource
23:02
to enter the rice industry uh more than
23:06
ever I think I want to continue engaging
23:07
my stakeholders in the field at the
23:11
industry partners that I work with so
23:13
that I can identify some of the key
23:14
issues that they're having and see how
23:17
we can address that so in general I
23:20
think there's a lot of opportunity for
23:22
us to do more to back of the industry
23:24
and this huge huge uh economic impact
23:27
that I think we can do with our research
23:30
so that is my
23:32
my plan and uh of course with my role as
23:35
the Director of the rice processing
23:38
program uh I want to see how I can lie
23:40
as with other faculty members who are
23:42
also having interest in rice you know
23:45
multi-disciplinary Wise and see how we
23:47
can do work that uh cuts across
23:50
different Spectrum there's a lot of work
23:51
that's being done right now even in the
23:53
genetics area you know are there new
23:55
technologies are trying to uh do things
23:57
like Gene editing to improve uh the
24:01
quality of rice how can my goal is to
24:03
find out how we can interface with them
24:06
in different uh ways and and help
24:08
improve basically the quality of rice
24:10
that we get
24:12
well I just want to end by saying thank
24:14
you guys so much for your time I I know
24:16
that the the rice industry the grain
24:17
industry
24:19
um is really going to benefit from your
24:21
research that they already have and and
24:22
they continue uh or will continue to do
24:25
so and it makes me really happy to to
24:27
see people at universities that like
24:29
yourself using the tools that meter
24:32
makes that's that's kind of why I enjoy
24:35
doing my job and you know we're always
24:37
here to consult with you and help you
24:39
get the most out of those instruments
24:41
and
24:42
um help you lead your industry but of
24:44
course that that requires the right tool
24:46
so thank you guys again for your time
24:48
today and good luck with the rest of
24:50
your semester and and we hope to have
24:52
you on sometime in the future to learn
24:54
about any updates with your program and
24:57
and what you're working on
24:58
thank you thank you very much we really
25:01
appreciate the time to be with you thank
25:03
you you're welcome see you guys bye
25:07
I'm Zachary Cartwright this is water and
25:09
food
25:11
find this podcast on Apple iTunes
25:13
Spotify or wherever you listen to
25:15
podcasts
