Comparative Analysis of Processing Conversion in Conventional and Modern Rice Mills of Southern Tamil Nadu

Rice is the staple food of Asian countries. China and India are the two important rice production centres that supply half of the world's rice. During 2012, the total food grains production in India reached an all-time high of 259.32 million tonnes. Tamil Nadu ranks fifth in rice production (6.32 lakh tonnes) during the year 2011-2012. Rice milling is the largest agro-based industry wherein the outer layer (husk) and inner layer (bran) of the paddy was removed and rice is obtained. The conversion ratio of paddy depends on the milling efficiency of the unit, technology adopted for paddy processing and quality of the procured paddy. The modern paddy processing unit has more head rice recovery and better utilization of the capacity when compared to the conventional unit.