Problems on grain drying in India

Dinesh Kumar M, Divya P S, and Harish Srinivasan.

Status in India
India produces - 150 million tonnes of grains per year. 47 million tonnes of wheat 64 million tonnes of rice 13 million tonnes of pulses (Anon. 1987). Due to technological advances in agriculture. An average 10% is lost during postharvest operations between the field and the consumer.

 About 15 million tonnes of food grain-Indian Rupees 2400 million goes to waste. Major share of the loss - storage of surplus stock. Important cause Improper drying before storage.

Traditional method
Preservation - drying - long-established technique. Sun drying in the open, on mud-plastered or concrete floors, is the conventional method of drying grain. Drying time - 5 to 45 days. Unfavourable weather conditions are likely to occur during the drying period and degradation in quality of the final produce therefore becomes unavoidable.

Sun dried paddy

Sun drying followed in India

Disadvantages
Unreliability. Uncontrolled heating of grains. Thermal stresses leading to grain fissures and breakage during milling. Vulnerability to infestation (due to fissures and by lying out in the open). Losses due to birds, rodents, etc.

Problems
Severe problems were observed during cyclonic storms when the fields are inundated and the grain is saturated. Leading to water dripping from grains Farmers only dries the paddy which is kept for their consumption viz. sun drying. Harvesting time for paddy coincides with the rainy season and also coincides with the peak time for wheat sowing.

 Paddy having high moisture contents up to 28% is brought directly from harvesting to marketing yards (mandies) for sale to the government. Though the government has installed mechanical grain dryers in certain marketing yards, farmers do not want to use the facilities. Farmers are not following early harvest and mechanical drying - high cost and transportation problems

Present Status of Grain Drying in India

Heavy demand occurs for quick drying during adverse conditions and easily forgotten after the crisis passes. After introduction of combine harvesters there is a need felt for grain drying facilities in the fields. In India, grain dryers are present only in the rice mills, some in seed processing industries and less in some yards.

 The ones in rice mills are not open to the farmers directly. Only the ones in seed processing industries are open to the farmers who provide grains to those companies. So it can be assumed that no dryers are available for the farmers. The main constraint is the high initial cost of the dryers which are not affordable to the farmers.

Why farmers didnt adopt mechanical drying?

Lack of organizational or government incentive to the farmer to deliver a quality product High initial costs. Most of the commercially available dryers are designed to suit the needs of the processing industry.

Safe storage moisture levels

Grains Barley (feed) MC (wb) % 14.8

Barley (malt)
Corn/maize Lentils Oats Wheat Rice

13.5
15.5 14.0 13.5 14.5 12-14

Considerations for selection of a grain dryer for farm level

The dryer should be of a size that matches the amount of grain available in a village or a cluster of villages. The dryer's cost should be within the reach of users. It must be simple in construction and operation and easily understandable to users. The dryer should be simple in design so that it is easy for local artisans to repair. The dryer should be suitable for drying a range of crops.

Grain dryers suitable for rural level use

Small-Capacity, Continuous Grain Dryer Cup and Cone Dryer for Paddy Drying IGSI Batch Dryer Community Grain Dryer Solar cum Husk-Fired Paddy Dryer Recirculating Batch Dryer

Cup and cone dryer

IGSI batch dryer

Solar cum husk fired paddy dryer

Conclusions
India produces about 150 million tonnes of food grains per year. Production has been steadily increasing due to advancement in production technology, but losses have remained static at 10%. This means that the loss of food grains is also increasing with the increase in food production. The main reason for this is improper drying before storage due to lack of awareness. For efficient storage, the grains are to be stored at safe moisture level. Immediate solution is development of farm level dryer