Newton Fund - Enhanced rice milling and maximised valorisatoin of rice milling by-products

Achieving optimal efficiency in the post harvest handling and processing of rice is a ubiquitous challenge for

India's agri-food sector. Rice is the staple food of 65% of the population and India, is the world's second largest

producer. It produces 103MT pa and exports 12MT of this. However, on average, head rice return in post

production handling is a low 50% of the paddy weight, with 50% of waste by-products consisting of rice

brokens, husk hulls and bran that are currently under utilised. The objectives of the project are twofold: firstly

develop a higher efficiency and lower energy milling process that will significantly reduce rice brokens during

milling and increase total rice output. Secondly, optimise the by-products available from the improved milling

process to re-process rice bran into highly nutritious food ingredients and process rice husks into rice husk ash

for re-use in the construction industry.