DESIGN OF SOLAR DRYER FOR RICE AT KARJAT, RAIGAD, MAHARASHTRA

Abstract

This paper deals with current practices of drying agricultural products in most of developing nations like India. It also try to coin the concept of utilization of Solar dryer at farm side. In a developing country like India, having the second largest population and agriculture as the source of income to nearly 60 % of the total population, post-harvest and storage loss is a major quandary, which needs to be addressed in due diligence. Many food preservation techniques like cold storage, drying, etc., have been evolved out over the years to tackle the above losses. The major constraint is that almost all the technologies are utilizing fossil fuel resources, which are depleting very fast and wise use of these precious resources are preferred for longterm energy sustainability. Therefore, sustainable methods for food preservation are the need of the hour. Solar drying is one of the best choices in this context. The effect of temperature to moisture contents against time and rate of drying are studied & discussed in this paper.