Constraints in Grain quality management: A warehouse journey

Vortrag

Abstract

India produces about 150 million tons of food grains per year. The major components of production are 47 million tonnes of wheat, 64 million tonnes of rice, and 13 million tonnes of pulses. Seasonal fluctuations in harvesting of grains impose efficient design for long term storage. Quality of grains will be retained by proper storage. Post harvest processing and storage conditions such as temperature, humidity, aeration, insect infestation, rodents, fungus, etc., at a particular geographical location influence the qualitative and quantitative losses of grains. Approximately about 10% of produce wasted during post production such as harvesting, threshing, and storage which means that about 15 million tons of grains are being washed out per year. Main intention of any government in warehousing is to offer a safe buffer stock during off-season. Knowledge about existing storage criteria creates a vision to develop new strategies. Based on this concept, a compartment in a godown of dimension 37.2m x 24.2m x 8m made of concrete and asbestos roof, with six doors and thirty-four windows was selected for the research. The stacks of dimension 6.5m x 3.9m x 6.1m with two hundred and sixtyfour numbers of gunny bags filled with grains arranged above the wooden dunnage were selected for insect and chemical analysis. Temperature, humidity and aeration rate were recorded at four corners and at center of the stack and also at 26 different spots in whole godown. The influence of various factors on insect infestation in grains during storage was studied. The results will help to design an advanced scientific grain storage godown for safe storage of grains in gunny bags for longer duration.