Three types of structures are used in California to store rice: metal bins, concrete silos and flat warehouses. After harvest, rice may be put in bins and dried using outside air. This type of drying, known as bin drying, is widely used by on-farm operations. Alternatively, rice can be dried by using heated air first, followed by ambient air. Using a column dryer, rice is dried to 16% or 17% moisture content and then transferred to bins, silos or flat warehouses, where the drying process continues, with outside air, to achieve the final 14% moisture content. This combination system is typically used by commercial paddy husker in California.
A close look at the current world food crisis indicates that a concerted effort to boost rice production and target processing for quality and bioavailabil-ity, especially to meet the needs of some segments of the world’s population, needs to be prioritized. Currently, nearly 800 million people, mostly in de-veloping countries, experience starvation, while ap-proximately 3 billion people suffer from micronu-trient deficiencies daily; at least one person diesevery 36 s due to hunger.
Among cereals, rice is mainly consumed in the whole form after rice destoner. It is estimated that the post-harvest losses range from 15 to 16 percent of the rice crop out of which about 9 per cent of paddy is lost primarily due to use of old and outdated methods of drying and milling, improper and unscientific methods of storage, transport and handling (FAO,2004).