- The farmer, in a remuneration point of view, must
attend to certain primary processing operations
like threshing, winnowing, cleaning, drying, grading, polishing,
milling etc. With Post harvest technologies appropriate for
cost, time and labour saving towards enhancement of quality
and marketability to his produce by value addition and by
products utilization he should use the related post harvest
machinery and equipment. He should transform himself from
more produce to producer-cum-processor
to get more remunerative price and profits by increasing quality
by value addition and efficient utilization of byproducts
besides reducing post harvest losses.
1) Threshing of Paddy by power thresher:
- Power threshers are recommended for threshing paddy crop
due to its multiple advantages like low investment, high threshing
efficiency, low operational cost compared to traditional tractor
threshing. It has additional advantages of simultaneous winnowing
and cleaning, besides threshing. Under utilization of tractor
of 35 hp power can be avoided, as the job of threshing to
the same extent could be achieved by expending only 7-10hp,
in case of power thresher. About 5-6 litres of diesel could
be saved, besides increased output of 1-2 bags of paddy which
otherwise goes as threshing loss in case of tractor threshing.
Under utilisatoin of 35 hp tractor for a 10hp, job of threshing,
if avoided would go a long way in public and national perspective
by saving fuel energy.
2) Threshing benches:
- Threshing benches either with wire mesh top or with perforated
M.S.Sheet may be used in place of wooded benches for threshing
the paddy crop as they are more efficient and have more service
life. Four men can thresh about 25 bags of paddy in a day.
Each threshing bench costs about Rs.600/-.
3) Winnowing machines for grain cleaning:
- Hand and power operated (Power tiller, tractor or small
engine operated) winnower can separate chaff, dust etc. from
grain. About 500-800 kg of grain can be winnowed in one hour.
These machinery are much useful when wufficient winds (velocity)
are not available and during unfavourable weather conditions.
4) Husk fired furnace dryer for drying of paddy:
- A half ton capacity husk fired furnace type batch dryer
can dry paddy from 25% moisture content to 13% moisture
content in a matter of 4-5h. It is much useful when sun drying
is not practicable in inclement weather during rainy season
and under sudden cyclone threat conditions.
5) Agricultural waste fired chilli dryer and its utilisation as multipurpose dryer to dry other crops:
- A two quintal capacity chilli dryer designed and developed
at this centre can dry red ripe chillies from 70% moisture
content to 15% moisture content in 20 hours compared to 12-15
days in sun drying. The chillies dried by this dryer retained
colour for a longer time during storage compared to sun dried
produce and are dust free with high quality and appearance.
Drying can be done from the crop refuse or paddy husk. This
dryer could be used as multipurpose dryer from drying other
crops like turmeric, groundnut and coconut.
a) Drying of turmeric
- Drying of turmeric with the chilli dryer is advantageous
in time and cost saving. The result of the trials showed 65.47%
of time saving and 7.8% of cost saving compared to traditional
method of sun drying. It took 58 hours to dry turmeric of
79.24% moisture content to 12.5% level against 168 hours of
time taken for the similar level of drying in open yard drying.
b) Drying of groundnut
- The rapid chilli dryer was also evaluated for drying groudnut.
When dried at 40-43 0C it took 25 hours compared to 4-5 days
required in open yard sun drying for bringing down the moisture
content from 28% to 8%. There was no adverse effect on germination
of the seed of the produce dried by the chilli dryer.
6. a) Mini Dhal Mill
- The mini dhal mill plant was developed with suitable accessories
and attachments like drying cum-storage bin with husk fired
heat exchanger system, sieve set, mixer for pre-treatment
with oil and water to the CIAE dhal mill thus mechanising
all the processing operations involved in dhal making. It
will separate dehusked wholes. It can run with a 3 h.p motor
and can mill 150 to 160 kgs of blackgram per hour with 65%
to 70% wholes and 15% to 18% splits recovery, thus about 80%
-82% dhal recovery compared to only 70-75% in traditional
method.
b) TNAU-Power operated mini dhal mill
- The mini-dhal mill was trail tested. It is capable of
splitting 30kg of blackgram per hour with a recovery of 83.5%
split half grains with 12% of brokens. In respect to green
gram it can mil 32 kg/hr. with recovery of 80% splits and
17% brokens.
7) Turmeric Grader
- The ANGRAU turmeric grader designed and developed by this
centre can grade about 400 kg of Turmeric in an hour into
four fractions namely bulbs, fingers (3cm length and above),
Polishable Nali (2 to 3cm length) and unpolishable Nali (less
than 2cm length) in a single pass, thus eliminates tedious
and laborious manual grading. This also facilitates better
quality and value addition to get higher remunerative price.
8) Turmeric Polisher
a) Hand operated turmeric polisher
- Hand operated ANGRAU turmeric polisher developed at this
centre can be used for both preliminary and secondary polishing,
replacing traditional method of shuftling and rubbing in gunny
bags and use of wooden log attached palmyrah leaves in bullock
trading method. It has the capacity to polish 500kg of turmeric
rhizomes per hour compared to only 100-200 kg/hr in the farmers
traditional method.
b) Power operated turmeric polisher
- With suitable alterations and further attachments like
2 h.p motor, V-belt and chain drive mechanism and gear system,
the hand operated turmeric polisher was converted into power
operated turmeric polisher. It can run at 30-32 rpm. with
the attachment of gears and V-belt. The power operated ANGRAU
Turmeric polisher can polish about 600-700kg of turmeric in
an hour with 98% polishing efficiency.
9) Low cost measuring device for determining colour intensity of agricultural produce.
- Colour reflectometer designed and developed at this centre
can be successfully used to determine yellowness of turmeric
(curcumin content) and redness.
10) Batch type rice bran stabilizer for stabilization of rice bran
- Stabilization of rice bran with rice bran stabilizer at
100 0C for 10minutes controls the increase in free fatty acid
up to 28 days in storage, by inactivation of lipase enzyme.
This facilitates extraction of edible grade oil, thus helps
in better utilization of rice bran the by-product of rice
milling industry.
11) Chilli seed extractor
- This machine is used for extracting seed from dry chilles
successfully. Dry chillies (or 11% moisture content) were
cut into pieces by the extractor and are collected at the
outlet. Seed is seperated from the pericarp by a built in
separation mechanism. The machine can extract seed in 4 quintals
of pods in a day of 8 hours with 99% extraction efficiency.
Thus, it facilitates in elimination of not only physical drudgery
but also scorching and pungency that hinder the extraction
in traditional manual extraction.
12) Safe Storage of groundnut
a) Drying and storage structures
- Groundnut has to be dried to less than 9% moisture for
safe storage, which can be stored in upto 6months without
loss of viability and free from aflatoxin contamination. The
groundnut can better be stored in 1) loosely knitted gunny
bags 2) compactly knitted gunny bags 3) nylon bags and 4)
polythene lined gunny bags.
b) Viability of groundnut in storage
- TMV-2 variety of groundnut maintained high viability (83%)
with lesser fungal growth (16%) at 240 days of storage while
the viability was least in K-150 (24%) followed by K-3 (21.6%)
indicating their unsuitability for storage as seed. The viability
was 79% in K-1186, 73% in K-153 and 67% in K-1143 at 180 days
of storage. However the viability of these varieties drastically
fell below 35% level by 240 day of storage.
13) Safe storages of pulses
- Pulses can be safely stored in nylon bags, polythene lined
gunny bags for up to 6months provided the grain is properly
dried before storage. Mixing of 250g of edible oil per quintal
of pulses is beneficial in safe storage.
14) Chilli storage
- Chillies stored in amber coloured polythene bags were
found to retain colour for longer period of storage. Mechanically
dried chillies showed higher colour value in chillies during
storage than that open yard sun dried produce.
15) Biochemical changes in paddy during storage
- Paddy stored up to 10-12 months was found to improve its
quality without change in their milling and culinary properties.
However, beyond 18 months of storage, there is deterioration
in its milling and culinary properties.
16) Use of plant origin materials for safe storage of pulses
- Among the different plant origin materials and inert materials
tried against pulse beetle C.maculatus infestation in stored
pulses, neem oil at 0.25% or 0.5% level of mixing with the
pulse grain was found to be the best in preventing the damage
of stored pulse up to 195 days of storage. Mixing of vegetable
oils at 0.25% or 0.5% also protected the pulses from damage
by pulse beetle up to 300 days of storage.
17) Cucumin content in stored turmeric varieties
- The curcumin content in stored turmeric varieties progressively
decreased with length of storage period. Among the varieties
tested the decrease in curcumir content in storage was higher
with Mydukur followed by PCT-14 and TC-2.
18) Chemical treatment of copra to prevent fungal damage
- Mature coconut halves treated with solutions of 1% acetic
acid, sodium bicarbonate & sodium chloride protected the
copra from spoilage due to fungal infection.
19) Suitability of storage containers for storage of tamarind
- Tamarind gained moisture when stored in mud pots and gunny
bags with reduced total acidity compared to the produce stored
in polythene bag, tetrapack or glass bottle. The acidity of
samples stored in tetra pack was highest followed by polythene
bags, whereas it was least in case of the samples stored in
gunny bags followed by mudpots. None of the structures however
could prevent discolouration of stored tamarind, as it is
temperature dependent.
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