If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a bag of rice and wondering how many paint buckets you could measure from it, you’re not alone. In many parts of Nigeria, a paint bucket, tomato cups, and tin milk cups are often used to measure and determine the selling units of rice. So, how many paint buckets are in a 5kg bag of rice really?
A 5kg bag of rice could potentially fill one paint bucket, with about four to six milk cups remaining. Mind you, this measurement could be slightly higher or lower depending on the kind of rice grains you measure.
This post explains the volume measurements of a bag of rice in Nigeria, rice densities, and paint bucket capacities. Keep reading to understand this form of measurement and how it works.
Relationship Between Rice and Paint Buckets in Nigeria
Rice and paint buckets are like 5 and 6 in Nigeria. Their complementary relationship is so close that every retailer dealing on rice will always have, at least, one nearby. Before we go into the calculations, let’s take a moment to understand the fundamental characteristics of our two key players: rice and paint buckets.
Rice, the cornerstone of countless cuisines around the globe, comes in various types and sizes. From long-grain to short-grain, white to brown, rice has been a dietary staple for centuries. However, for the sake of this topic, we’ll focus on the common 5kg bag of rice in Nigeria.
Notable amongst the manufacturers of 5kg bag of rice in Nigeria are Royal Stallion, Cap, Big Bull, and Mama’s Pride. The size is ideal for many small homes who detest frequenting the market to buy rice in bits.
On the other hand, paint buckets are usually used by artists, house painters, or homeowners. As the name implies, they originally serve as containers for artistic and decorative paints. With varying sizes and materials, these containers are very popular in many Nigerian homes.
Funnily, these vessels turn out to be more useful to Nigerian rice retailers than painters, whom they’re primarily made for. It goes without the saying “Nothing waste for Naija”.
How Many Paint Bucket Are in a 5kg Bag of Rice?
To determine how many paint buckets can be filled with the contents of a 5kg bag of rice, we need to grasp some key concepts related to volume and capacity.
Volume of a 5kg Bag of Rice
The volume of a 5kg bag of rice largely depends on the density of the rice and how it’s packed within the bag. Rice grains can settle and compact over time, altering the apparent volume.
However, as a rough estimate, a 5kg bag of rice could occupy around 5 to 7 liters of space.
Capacity of a Paint Bucket
Paint buckets, available in various sizes, can hold different amounts of liquid. While they come in different forms, the popular paint buckets used to measure rice in Nigeria is the 4-liter paint bucket or the 2kg custard bucket.
Measuring a 5kg Bag of Rice in Paint Buckets
Now, let’s bridge the gap between rice and paint buckets by converting the estimated volume of the 5kg bag of rice into the capacity of paint buckets. But before we look into the conversion, it’s important to know other common objects used in measuring rice in Nigeria.
That leads us to the Derica.
Derica
Derica is a traditional measurement unit predominantly used in many African countries, particularly in West Africa. Most food retailers use it to quantify dry food staples such as rice, beans, millet, and maize.
The term “derica” is derived from Hausa, where it refers to a specific quantity of these food items. A certain packaged tomato tin is usually used for measurement of this sort.
Using Derica
There are about 64 derica in a bag of rice weighing 50kg. Using this estimate, a 5 kg of rice contains about 6.4 derica. While a paint bucket will contain about 5 derica of rice, a 5kg of rice will contain one paint bucket and 1.4 derica.
…Make sure you also check out how many paint bucket you can measure in a 50kg bag of rice.
Measuring rice in paint buckets has become a norm in many markets in the southwestern parts of Nigeria. In fact, this norm often finds relevance in industrial kitchens or large-scale catering. While it’s not a conventional unit of measurement, it could aid in estimating the quantity of rice required for preparing substantial meals.
You might want to check out which is more healthy between fufu and garri.
Final Tip
While trying to understand the number of paint bucket in a bag of rice, it’s important to understand the significance of volume, density, and capacity. These are what this article explained, to make you understand how we achieved the measurement.
Difference in rice density is also a factor that leads to the slight varieties in the measurement of rice. Notwithstanding, note that a 25kg bag of rice usually covers a paint bucket and a derica. Have a comment? Please drop it in the comment section below.