Conditions of drying parboiled paddy for optimum milling quality.

Parboiled paddy dried in the shade had excelle'Dt milling quality, but rapid \ndrying with hot air (40°_80°C.) or in the sun gave high breakage. The damage \nstarted as the moisure content reached 15% and increased sharply with \nfurther drying. Milling at different time intervals after drying demonstrated \nfurther that damage to the paddy occurred gradually only subsequent to its removal \nfrom the dryer. From this it was found that keeping the paddy hot after \ndrying (conditioning) for about 2 hr. prevented the milling breakage. Dryinr \nin two stages with a tempering (2 hr. if hot, 8 hr. if at room temperature) jus \nbefore attainment of the critical moisture content (at 15.5-16,5%) also pre \nserved milling quality, Tempering at higber moisture contents was less beneficial, \nand multiple tempering gave no additional benefit Drying in two passes \nwitb a tempering in the moisture range of 15 to 19%, followed by hot-conditioning \nafter tbe final drying; was convenient in practice and satisfactory; a \ndrying temperature up to 80~C. could be used. After parboiled paddy was \ndried in this way, milling breakage would not exceed 1-2%,