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Crop drying technology
Why is it in news?
- Farmers in Odisha will soon have a handy tool to bring down quantitative and qualitative losses caused by high moisture content during post-harvest operation.
- An innovative drying technology, Solar Bubble Dryer, developed jointly by International Rice Research Institute, Philippines; Grainpro, a leading post-harvest solution providing company; and University of Hohenheim, Germany.
Solar Bubble Dryer
- Krishi Vigyan Kendra-Khordha, affiliated to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, held a demonstration of the technology which is claimed to dry up crop at minimal cost.
- The SBD is a low-cost drying technology that aims to provide a simple and flexible alternative to sun-drying, while protecting from spillage, animals, weather and vehicles running over the grains.
- The quantitative loss in traditional sun-drying method is estimated to be in the range of 15 to 30% between harvesting and milling.
- Due to quality loss, farmer do not get proper price of their produce.
- After harvesting, moisture content in paddy is found between 20 to 24% and it needs to be brought down to below 14% in order to protect the stock from insect attack and fungus formation.
- The new technology has been developed in such a way that farmers can dismantle the machinery and reassemble it on their own.
- Power can be drawn both from solar energy and traditional electricity.
- The SBD is in use in almost all southeast Asian countries since 2016. Now, this is being introduced in India.
Source
The Hindu