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Rice Milling

Preprint · August 2020

DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12780116.v3

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Report

Rice Milling Situation and Technology to

Replace Small-Scale Old husking Mills in
Bangladesh

FEED THE FUTURE BANGLADESH RICE VALUE CHAIN PROJECT

(RVC)

THE INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (IRRI)

2016
Introduction
It is well known that the most popular equipment for milling rice in Bangladesh is
the single-pass Engelberg huller (the steel huller), which is operating throughout the
country and it contributes large proportion of total production. However, number of
automatic and semi-automatic rice mills has increased in last decade which made a
change that affected the domestic rice marketing and rice marketing chain in
Bangladesh, more advanced rice mills are being operated on a larger scale and have
been expanding and generated impacts in market concentration. The steel hullers
cause high breakage with total milled rice recovery and head rice recovery up to 55
and 30 % respectively. Moreover, as both dehusking and polishing process are being
done in one operation and milled rice mainly is produced by friction between the
grains and the steel parts of the huller cause the husk and bran to be separated and
move through the screen, the mills do not separate rice bran from the husk and
prevent millers from benefits that they can get with more by-products. Also, husk
and bran are partially discharged with the polished rice, which requires further
winnowing.
Generally, the traditional process of milling parboiled rice (different varieties) is the
cleaning of paddy, soaking, steaming, sun drying, and milling with Engelberg huller,
aerating and bagging (Fig.1). For milling new varieties, such as BRRI-dhan50 which
is fine long grain in Engelberg husking machines, only parboiled paddy can be
processed and the process is the same but with more concern and attention to the
parboiling, drying and de-husking processes, the processing of BRRI-dhan50 is done
in sequence as below diagram (Fig.1). However, with such concern, the broken rice
percentage is much higher compared to milling such variety in rubber rolls mills.

Drying
Soaking/steeping Parboiling/steaming • Sun drying : all day but not in the peak
Cleaning •8 to 12 hrs •2 times from 10 min to time from 12:3 pm. 1 or 2 days is
2 Hours enough, 3 days in some cases.

Milling
•By Engelberg: loadind the dryed grain for 3 to 4 times (repeatable Eaerating
dehulling). 2 to 3 times then aerating/cleaning then last time with •Seperatly done by aerater
adding water droplests

Fig. 1 Sequences of milling rice in Engelberg based husking mills

Page | 2
Numerous number of Engelberg based husking mills give milling services to locals/farmers
without further processing (polishing and sorting). Such services include fine grains varieties
and bold grain local varieties with higher percentage of broken rice and poor rice quality (Fig.
2 and Fig. 3). Usually farmers/ consumer accept the quality given by the mills as no other
options and they do further cleaning in house.

Fig. 2 Milling of BRRI dhan-39 in small-scale rice mill

Fig. 3 Results of milling fine grain rice after 2nd time of husking (lift) and after 3 rd time (right)

Page | 3
For milling fine grains varieties, millers usually use different sieves, which is narrower
compared to the one that is being used with local varieties (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 Different sieves which are being used in milling fine grain rice
in old Engelberg mills

Some millers who normally give more attention to steaming, soaking time, cleaning and
drying their crop in moderate temperature (=<40 C º and in shade), can get higher milling
quality with better market price.

On the other hand, some owners of Engelberg mills are doing milling and are getting further
required processes i.e. polishing and sorting from automatic or semi-automatic rice mills.
Auto/semi auto mills charge them from 0.7 to 2 BDT/kg for polishing and sorting, in addition
to transportation cost. But in this case, the small-scale millers can sell their rice with price near
to the market price of auto/semi-auto mills (2-5 TK/kg less). Further processes of polishing
and sorting of rice are being done based on the availability and time of auto/semi-auto mills
e.g. some time they are doing the service for small millers only at night, or maybe they refuse
because of poor traditional processes that small mills are following and can affect their
machines. Also, the small-scale Engelberg millers partially offer the sorted-polished rice under
their own brand in local markets or can work as initial rice processors for auto/semi-auto
mills. The different scenarios of Engelberg’ operational modes can be summarized as in Fig.
5.

Page | 4
 Fig. 5 Different Engelberg milling services

Many attempts have been made to improve the existing Engelberg mills, including the de-
husking machine that was developed by BRRI, where a 4 kW 3 phase motor at 1440 rpm was
used to operate rubber roll husker to separate husk from paddy and 38 cm diameter exhaust
blower with 1.5 kW motor at 2840 rpm used for removing husk. The capacity of developed
de-husker was 500 kg/h and hulling efficiency was more than 90% in one pass. The head rice
recovery was increased by 1-2% due to use of de-husker. In addition, bran and husk can be
used for extracting bran oil and making briquette respectively (BRRI Annual Report, 2015).
IRRI with its partnership with national institutes, private companies and importers is exploring
more options that can change small-scale old rice milling system to better ones.

Number of rice mills

From data presented in table 1 and Fig. 6, the traditional husking mills are not yet out of the
scene, whereas the number of such mills slightly changed over time. Diversely, the number of
automatic and semi-automatic mills has impressively increased by 75 and 92% from 2007 to
2014 respectively.

Table 1 Number of registered husking, semi-auto and auto mills in Bangladesh (different sources)
(BIDS, 2014: (Rice miller
(DG Food, (Islam, (Hossain, 2014:DG
Ministry of Food, Association,
2007) 2014) Food, 2014)
2011) 2012)
Number of registered mills
Mill Type
2007 2011 2012 2014 2014
Husking 13329 16347 15239 16400 16171
Semi-automatic 109 131 650 420 1432
Automatic 141 361 350 400 562

Page | 5
 Husking Semi-automatic Automatic
78125
15625
Number of mills

3125
625
125
25
5
2007 2011 2012 2014 2014
Year
Fig. 6 Number of registered husking, semi-automatic and automatic mills in Bangladesh (different sources)

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the numbers of husking, automatic and
semi-automatic rice mills which were located in different districts in 2011 were 26650, 2116,
and 3650 respectively. Fig. 7 shows the concentration of different mills type in different
districts and table 2 presents the number of rice mills in Rice Value Chain project’ working
areas where 4802, 209, and 485 husking, auto, and semi auto rice mills respectively were
installed (BBS, 2013).

Husking Semi-automatic Automatic

6000
Numner of Mills

5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
BARISAL CHATTAGONG DHAKA KHULNA RAJSHAHI RANGPUR SYLHET

Division

Fig. 7 Number of mills in Bangladesh districts in 2011 (BBS, 2013)

At district levels, Fig. 8 shows the proportional number of husking mills distributed in
Bangladesh districts, while Fig. 9 shows the proportional number of auto and semi-auto rice
mills at districts’ level.

Page | 6
Fig. 8 Proportional number of husking mills distributed in Bangladesh districts

Fig. 9 Proportional number of auto and semi-auto rice mills at districts’ level.

Page | 7
Table 2 Number of rice mills in RVC project working area (BBS, 2013)
Area KHULNA BAGERHAT SATKHIRA JESSORE JHENAIDAH CHUADANGA MAGURA BARISAL
Mill type Number of mills
Husking 476 129 300 479 531 244 169 704
Semi-automatic 209 33 113 8 - - - -
Automatic 36 8 66 7 6 2 - -

Area BARISAL Bholo JHALAKHATI PATUAKHALI BARGUNA FARIDPUR MADARIPUR RAJBARI

MILL type Number of mills
Husking 704 213 25 1200 110 81 141 -
Semi-automatic - - - 7 110 - 5 -
Automatic - - 1 - - 1 5 77

Milling capacity of different milling systems

There is no much information related to the change over time of milling capacity which
occurred due to the technological changes in Bangladesh’ milling systems. However, the
available data showed that in 2006, husking type mills dominated 94.5 % of the fortnightly
milling capacity while the automatic and semiautomatic dominated only 4 and 1.5 %
respectively. In 2014 the situation was different, where the fortnightly milling capacity
percentage of automatic and semi-automatic mill reached 15.2 and 13.6 % respectively
compared to 71 % for the husking rice mills. The milling capacity of different systems in 2006
and 2014 are presented in table 3 and Fig.10.

Table 3 Fortnightly milling capacities for different rice mills in ton for 2006 and 2014
Sources 2006 (Source: DG Food, 2006) 2014 (Source: DG Food, 2014)
Capacity, ton
Mill Type 2006 2014
Husking 550204 706245
Semi-automatic 8595 136762
Automatic 22827 151589
Total milled rice 581626 994596

Husking Semi-automatic Automatic Husking Semi-automatic Automatic

8595 22827 151589
136762

706245
550204

Page | 8
Fig. 10 Change in dominated fortnightly milling capacity in ton in 2006 (left) and 2014 (right)
According to Global Agriculture Information Network (GAIN), the amount of milled rice is
steadily increasing every year as shown in Fig. 11, the amount of milled rice increased from
29 million ton in 2007 to 34.5 million ton in 2014 (GAIN, 2015)

40,000
Milled rice, 1000 ton

35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Year

Fig. 11 Total amount of milled rice in Bangladesh

To validate the milling capacity of different milling systems and compare it with the amount
of milled rice, the following table (table 4) was generated based on the potential operation
(week/year) cited by Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) (SDNP,
2016).
Table 4 Mills potential operation and milling capacity
Potential Fortnightly milling Milling
Type of Capacity, ton/week Milling capacity,
operation capacity, ton capacity,
Mill ton/year (2014)
(week/year) 2006 2014 2006 2014 ton/year (2006)
Automatic 29 22827 151589 11413.5 75794.5 330991.5 2198040.5
Semi-
30 8595 136762 68381 4297.5 128925 2051430
automatic
Husking 43 550204 706245 353122.5 275102 11829386 15184267.5
Grand-
-- 12289302.5 19433738
total

From Table 4, milling capacities of registered mills in Bangladesh in 2006 and 2014 were 12.3
and 19.4 million ton/year respectively which are much less than the total milled rice produced
in same years. The difference between the milled amount and the capacity of rice mills may
come due to the inaccurate numbers of installed rice mills within the country. There is large
number of unregistered rice mills has been observed around the country, most of these mills
are mobile husking mills (Engleberg mobile type), e.g. in Barisal division, out of 551 running
husking mills observed in 2016, 323 mills were mobile based Engleberg type with percentage

Page | 9
of 59 % (personal communication and survey in 2016). Same scenario can be found in all
divisions. Another reason for mismatching the milled amount with the mills capacities is the
low potential operation (week/year) and the milling capacity which maybe more than cited by
current sources.

Market size and capacity utilization

The market size of husking based mills in 2007 estimated to be 20965 million BDT compared
to 11360 and 27420 million BDT for automatic and semiautomatic rice mills respectively in
same year. The capacity utilization for husking, semi-automatic and automatic mills was 51,
30 and 60 % respectively (DOF, 2007). Different numbers were cited also by Alam (2005).
According to rice miller association, 27 % of the milled rice has been produced by husking
based mills and 58 % produced by semi-auto mills in 2012, while automatic mills processed
the remaining 15% Table 5.

Table 5 Market size, capacity utilization and percentage of milled rice in different rice milling systems
(different sources)
(Rice miller
Sources (Alam, 2005) (DOF, 2007) (DOF, 2007)
Association 2012)
Mill Type Market size, Million TK Capacity Utilization, % % of Milled rice
Husking-registered 56956 20965 51 27
Semi-automatic 4354 27420 30 58
Automatic 12180 11360 60 15

Technology to replace old steel husking mill (Engleberg mill)

As mentioned in the introduction, the steel hullers are the most popular single pass rice mills
that are located in Bangladesh and in most rice-growing areas. Because the machines are not
sophisticated and are relatively simple to manufacture and operate, they still the mainstay
technology for milling parboiled paddy (Tangpinijkul, 2010). Iron hullers and single pass
mills also are alternative given names by researchers and users to the same mills.

New compacted rubber rolls mill

IRRI successfully installed and test new compacted rice mill that has a capacity up to 750
kg/h, with such machine, dehusking is done with rubber rollers, husk is separated by
aspiration, and bran is removed by friction/ abrasive polishers. This machine is considered as a
single pass 2-stage rice mills with simple design and it is easy to operate. Like the steel huller,
it can be installed in a small space and can be operated by one person. It can be powered by an
electric motor or diesel engine. However, the modern rice mill has a higher initial cost than the
steel huller but with shorter payback period due to the lower power requirement and operating
cost.
The rubber roller husker is by far the most important technology used today for husking rough
rice. Rough rice is fed via hopper and supplied to the two rubber rolls. One roller rotates

Page | 10
clockwise, and the other counters clockwise at a faster speed. This provides a shearing action
that strips off the husk. The rubber on the roles is flexible and does not crush the grain. Rice
husk and broken rice are removed from the husked material at the winnowing section which is
referred to as aspirator. In the aspirator the material is divided into a mixture of brown rice,
unhusked whole grains, and rice husk. The husked material is taken out by suction of the
aspirator fan. After passing through the rubber roll husker, the brown rice and unhusked paddy
grain will move the next step.

Component and working theory

Compacted single pass 2-stage rice mill (Fig. 12 and Fig. 13) has been installed and initially
tested with two rice varieties. The compacted rice mill consists of a wide 6-inch diameter
rubber roller husker and friction emery polisher with no husking knife. The machine installed
in small place (even need smaller place than normal Engelberg machine as there is no open
flat belt required). The machine installed with no pre-configured constructions, and the power
source was a 30 hp electric motor. One person can operate the machine but with frequent
check and adjustment of the rubber rollers clearance as it is changeable over pressure.

Brown rice huller system uses the speed difference on the rubber roll, so the construction will
put on top two pieces of rubber roll just below the hopper. Husk separator using air blower
system, so the construction will accommodate air flow toward a brown rice and husk are out
of rubber roll. The machine is equipped with air duct which serves to suck out husk of the
rubber rolls and to discharge the bran from the machine in second stage, Fig 14 shows rice and
byproduct movements in compacted rice mill.

Page | 11
 Fig. 12 Components of compacted rice mill

Fig. 13 Pictures of compacted rice mill

Fig. 14 Rice and byproducts’ movements in compacted rice mill

Page | 12
Milling yield and milled rice quality
Milling yield is a term that refers to milling quality and used in reference to percentage of
head rice which is routinely expressed as a ratio, with the numerator being the head rice yield
and the denominator the milled rice yield. For example, a milling yield of 55/70 would
indicate a head rice of 55 percent, a milled rice of 70 percent and a broken rice yield of 15
percent (the difference between milled rice and head rice). It can be calculated based on below
equation. Numerically, milling yield = (weight of white rice/ weight of paddy) x 100. Head
rice comprises milled rice kernels that are at least three-fourths the original length of the
kernel; often referred to as “whole” kernels. Percentage of head rice = (weight of whole grains
/ weight of paddy sample) x 100, head rice recovery = (weight of whole milled grains/ weight
of all milled grains), and percentage of broken rice = (weight of broken grains/ weight of
paddy sample) x 100.
Two different varieties under two different conditions [BRRI-dhan50 (parboiled and un-
parboiled) and local variety- BRRI-dhan28 (parboiled and un-parboiled)] were the base to
evaluate the new installed compacted rice mill, electricity as power required was estimated,
cost analysis has been done based on available data and different cost elements. Below critical
list of factors have been noted and were considered during rice mill testing.
1- Duration that rice is milled, more milling time lead to decrease in surface lipid content,
head rice and milling yield, because as milling progresses, more of the surface of both
head rice and broken kernels is removed, which would decrease the mass of both
fractions.
2- MC at the time of milling, it is a critical factor.
3- Pressure in milling unit (rollers), speed of rolls, clearance between fixed and movable
rolls.
4- The rice cultivar or cultivar mix, rice mixing affects milling behavior where rice
cultivars inherently differ in physical attributes, including the bran thickness and kernel
shape, size and surface topography. Mixing rice in mills usually results in reduced
milling capacity, excessive breakage, lower milled rice recovery, and reduced head rice
yields. (Siebenmorgen, 2013).
5- Rollers differential peripheral speed.
6- Miller skill: important, the use of good milling equipment and good quality paddy does
not guarantee a high quality product if the miller is not skilled enough to use the mill.
7- Immature rice: immature rice kernels are very slender and chalky and result in the
production of excessive bran, broken grains and brewer’s rice.
8- Dockage, includes chaff, stones, weed seeds, soil, rice straw, stalks and other foreign
matter, these, impurities generally come from the field or from the drying floor.
9- Hopper feed opening to be closed at loading and before operating the machine.
10- Using feed rate control should be done carefully and slowly, so that paddy can be
entered to rubber roll with proper amounts.

Page | 13
 11- Adjusting distance between rolls (clearance) is the most critical issue for better milling,
adjusting rollers clearance is important to match the thickness of paddy and varieties. If
distance between roll is too large will cause a lot of paddy were not husked, while
distance between roll that is too small will cause a lot of broken rice.
12- Adjusting air flow, air speed that is too large will cause a lot of brown rice sucked,
whereas if the wind speed is too small, it will cause a lot of husk that not sucked (with
brown rice together).
Milling test results
Milling recovery
Using the old steel huller (Engelberg huller) with un-parboiled rice always gives lower milling
recovery. Data in table 6 and Fig. 15 showed that the milling recovery was less by 14 % and
21 % when un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 and un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 milled in Engelberg
respectively compared to the parboiled rice for same varieties. Using the new rice mill proved
the advantage of using such machines in milling un-parboiled rice. Using new compacted rice
mill gave higher milling recovery with un-parboiled paddy with 61.47 % for BRRI-dhan50
and 57 % for BRRI-dhan28 compared to 56.93 % and 51.50 % for same varieties milled in
Engelberg huller.

Table 6 Milling recovery of new compacted rice milling and old husking milling machines (Engelberg
huller)
Mill machine Variety Milling recoveries, %
Parboiled BRRI-dhan50 65.93
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 56.93
Engelberg huller
Parboiled BRRI-dhan 28 65.27
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan 28 51.50
Parboiled BRRI-dhan50 57.23
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 61.47
Compacted rice mill
Parboiled BRRI-dhan 28 68.33
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan 28 57.07

Page | 14
With parboiled rice varieties, milling recovery of Engelberg huller is almost same for the two
varieties BRRIdhan-50 and BRRI-dhan28 with (1% difference), while in new compacted rice
mill, the milling recovery was higher with BRRI-dhan28. Using new rice mill with parboiled
BRRI-dhan28 increased the milling recovery by 3% (table 6 and Fig. 15.).

100
Milling recoveries, %

90
80 65.93 65.27 68.33
70 56.93 57.23 61.47 57.07
60 51.50
50
40
30
20
10
0
Parboiled Un-parboiled Parboiled Un-parboiled Parboiled Un-parboiled Parboiled Un-parboiled
BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan28 BRRI-dhan28 BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan28 BRRI-dhan28
Engelberg huller Compacted Rice Mill

Mill machine

Fig. 15 Effect of using the new compacted rice on milling recovery

Milling capacities
Minimum milling capacities recorded with Engelberg mill were 223.23 and 241.93 kg/h for
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 and Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 respectively, while minimum
capacities recorded with the new compacted rice mill were 212.59 256.89 kg/h with Un-
parboiled BRRI-dhan50 and un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 respectively. Both milling systems
gave higher milling capacity in parboiled varieties, but, the new rice mill gave notable higher
milling capacity of parboiled BRRI-dhan50 which was higher by 61% more than the old
huller. For both un-parboiled varieties and parboiled BRRI-dhan28 and, no significant
differences were recorded in milling capacities for both machines. Average milling capacities
are listed in table 7 and Fig 16.
Table 7 Average milling capacities for new and old milling systems.
Mill machine Variety Average Capacity, kg/h
Parboiled BRRI-dhan50 288.65
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 241.93
Engelberg huller
Parboiled BRRI-dhan28 370.95
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 296.62
Average 299.54
Parboiled BRRI-dhan50 754.62
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 289.08
Compacted rice mill
Parboiled BRRI-dhan28 359.00
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 368.94
Average 442.91

Page | 15
 1000
900
Milling Capacity

800 754.62
700
600
500
370.95 359.00 368.94
400 288.65 296.62 289.08
300 241.93
200
100
Parboiled Un-parboiled Parboiled Un-parboiled Parboiled Un-parboiled Parboiled Un-parboiled
BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan28 BRRI-dhan28 BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan50 BRRI-dhan28 BRRI-dhan28
Engelberg huller Compacted Rice Mill
Mill machine

Fig . 16 Average milling capacities for new and old milling system

Rice and the byproducts

One of the advantages of using compacted new rice mill is the separation of rice bran as added
value to small-scale rice millers. Around 6 % of the original paddy turns into rice bran in case
of parboiled paddy and 12 % with un-parboiled paddy. Table 8 presents different output
percentages with both tested rice mills. The price of rice husk was found to be 40-50 % lower
than the price of rice bran, so producing bran instead of husk will add more value with proper
milling recovery and milling capacity. To calculate the added value of producing rice bran
compared to producing rice husk only, the price of total outputs was calculated for 1000 kg
rice (table 8). Based on the experimental data for rice milled in the new rubber roller rice mill,
small rice millers can increase their income by 1756 to 2047 BDT for each ton of rice they
produce due to rice bran, and such differences of output benefits not correlated to
implementation cost (Table 9)
Table 8 Different output percentages with both tested rice mills
% of % of % of Sample
Mill machine Variety
Rice Husk Bran validation1
Parboiled BRRI-dhan50 65.93 33.60 0.00 99.53
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 56.93 43.87 0.00 1.01
Engelberg huller
Parboiled BRRI-dhan28 65.27 32.23 0.00 0.98
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 51.50 46.70 0.00 0.98
Parboiled BRRI-dhan50 57.23 30.20 6.97 0.94
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 61.47 19.30 12.73 0.94
Compacted rice mill
Parboiled BRRI-dhan28 68.33 25.20 6.17 1.00
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 57.07 23.13 12.60 0.93

1
Sample validation is the percentage difference between the total component outputs and the original rice
weight of the sample.

Page | 16
Table 9 Example of percentage increase of income per 1000 kg based on May-2016 market price
1000 kg of paddy
Percentage
Total
Mill machine Variety % of % of increase in
% of Rice Output mill
Bran Husk income, %
Price, Tk2
(BDT)
BRRI-dhan50 569.33 0.00 438.70 33114.933 -
Engelberg huller
BRRI-dhan28 515.00 0.00 467.00 22276.000 -
Compacted rice BRRI-dhan50 614.67 127.33 193.00 35162.000 6 (2047)
mill BRRI-dhan28 570.67 126.00 231.33 24032.667 8 (1756)

Percentage of head rice and broken rice

Average percentage of head rice when un-parboiled BRRI dhan28 variety got milled in old
Engleberg huller was 28.2 % which is very low, while using the new rice mill successfully
raised the percentage of head rice to 62.8 % in average for same variety and condition. For
parboiled BRRI dhan28, the new rice mill increased the head rice by 2.9 % more than the old
Engleberg huller (Table 10). Average percentage of broken rice was decreased from 71.2 to
37.1 % and from 9.65 to 7.29 % when BRRI dhan28 has been milled by old Engleberg huller
and new rice mill and for un-parboiled and parboiled rice respectively.
Table 10 Average percentages of head rice and broken rice for old and new rice mills
Average % of Average % of
Variety Condition Mill machine
Head Rice Broken Rice
Engleberg 21.07 78.76
BRRI-dhan50 Un-parboiled
Compacted rice mill 36.15 63.66
Engleberg 83.34 16.46
BRRI dhan50 Parboiled
Compacted rice mill 86.96 13.11
Engleberg 28.21 71.22
BRRI dhan28 Un-parboiled
Compacted rice mill 62.83 37.09
Engleberg 90.19 9.65
BRRI dhan28 Parboiled
Compacted rice mill 92.67 7.29

For BRRI-dhan50, as fine long grain variety, average head rice was 21% when old huller used
to mill it in un-parboiled condition, using new rice mill with same variety and condition raised
the percentage of the head rice to 36 %. For parboiled BRRI-dhan50, the average head rice
was higher with using new compacted rice mill. Average percentage of broken rice was
decreased from 78.76 to 63.66 % and from 16.45 to 13.11 % when BRRI-dhan50 was milled
by old Engleberg huller and new rice mill and for un-parboiled and parboiled rice respectively
(Fig 17).
2
Total Output mill Price is function of bran, husk, and rice market prices.

Page | 17
 Average %of Head Rice Average %of Broken Rice
Average percentage of Head Rice
100
90
80
70
and Broken Rice

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Engleberg CRM Engleberg CRM Engleberg CRM Engleberg CRM
Unparboiled Parboiled Unparboiled Parboiled
BRRI dhan50 BRRI dhan50 BRRI dhan28 BRRI dhan28
Rice

Fig. 17 Percentages of head rice and broken rice in old and new rice mills for different varieties

Cost analysis
Both fixed and variable costs have been calculated for new installed compacted rice mill and
the old rice Engleberg huller. Major cost components were interest on capital, depreciation,
tax insurance and housing for fixed cost, and were repair and maintenance, fuel, and labour for
variable cost (details of cost components in table 11). Standard parameters have been used to
calculate the total hourly operating cost and cost of 1000 kg production (table 12).
Cost analysis showed that the cost required per 1000 kg was 335.51 BDT which was lower by
27 % than the old Engleberg rice huller because of lower electricity consumption and higher
production rate. However, ownership and cost per hour still lower still lower in old Engleberg
rice huller than the new installed rice mill.

Table 11 Cost components and total cost per hour and per 1000 kg for old and new rice mills.
Paddy prices
Variety Price, BDT/40 kg Price, BDT/ kg
Parboiled BRRI-dhan50 1060 26.50
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 1000 25.00
Parboiled BRRI-dhan28 860 21.50
Un-parboiled BRRI-dhan28 800 20.00
Electricity cost
Machine Consumption Elect. Price, Cost
Motor, hp
kW /4000 kg BDT per kW BDT /kg
Engelberg huller 110 60 10 0.275
Compacted Rice Mill 55 30 10 0.138
Machine cost
Connections and
Machine Price, BDT Motor price, BDT Total
construction cost,

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 BDT
Engelberg huller 60,000 45,000 25,000 130,000
Compacted Rice Mill 270,000 30,000 8,000 308,000

Operational cost, labour labour cost, Average capacity,

labour /day
BDT/day kg/h
Machine
Engelberg huller 1 304 299.54
Compacted Rice Mill 1 304 442.91
Rice (Components price) Market Price,
BDT /kg
BRRI-dhan50 52.00
BRRI-dhan28 36.00
Rice Husk 8.00
Rice Bran 14.00

Table 12 Inputs and cost parameter

New compacted rice
Input and parameter Engleberg notes
mill
Purchase price, BDT 308,000 130,000 Price as in May 2016
Equipment life in hours 20,000 50,000
Residual value, % 10 5
Interest rate, % 8 8
Annual usage, hours 3,000 3,000
Insurance, % 1.10 1.10
Annual major cost, BDT 15,000 17,000
Annual servicing cost, BDT 5,000 8,000
Labour to hours ratio 0.15 0.15
Service labour rate per hour 30.00 30.00
Unassigned cost ratio, % 8 8
Electricity cost, BDT/ kW 10.00 10.00
Electricity , kW/h 6.11 8.27
Cost of rubber roller 6,000 - No rubber rollers in old
Life of rubber roller, h 350 - Husking mill
Operator cost per hour 38 38
Cost break down
Ownership 19.51 4.77
Maintenance 11.83 13.50

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Consumable 79.26 82.00
Operator 38 38
Total cost per hour 148.60 138.27
Total cost per 1000 kg 335.51 461.61

Conclusion and future work

1- Engelberg (old husking mills) strongly exist, their share in market size is being
reduced but still contribute large proportion of total productions with providing milling
services to locals/farmers with or without further processing. However, changing such
mills is required.

2- At least 4.5 % and 5.6 % increase in milling recovery can be achieved by using new
rubber rolls rice mill in milling un-parboiled BRRI-dhan50 and un-parboiled BRRI-
dhan28 respectively. Also, in parboiled rice, using the new rice mill can increase the
milling recovery as in the case of parboiled BRRI-dhan28.

3- Using the new compacted rice mill has reduced the percentage of broken rice by 24
and 11.5 % in un-parboiled and parboiled BRRI-dhan50 respectively. For other
varieties, also using the new machine has reduced the percentage of broken rice by 92
and 33 % in un-parboiled and parboiled BRRI-dhan28. Also, using the new rice mill
showed advantage of huge increasing in head rice percentage, especially with un-
parboiled varieties. In parboiled varieties, the increase in head rice was limited to 4.3
and 2.7 % for BRRI-dhan50 and BRRI-dhan28 respectively.

4- Using new rubber rollers based mills can add value to small-scale rice millers, where
producing bran as a separate component can increase their income.

5- The advantages of using the new rubber roller mill were in milling the newly
introduced varieties such as BRRI-dhan50, this is matching with the efforts that started
to disseminate premiere quality rice with proper processing steps along their value
chain.

6- Cost required to produce 1000 kg was less when we used the new installed rice mill.
This is considering a good indicator for small-scale rice miller to adapt such machines.

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 However more studies are needed to track the long time operating of the machine
under commercialized schemes.

7- Rice millers expressed their interest to get same capacity machines for higher quality
milled rice for local markets, however, higher capacity rubber rolls mills (1.5 to 3
ton/h) are needed as cleared by rice millers who target wider market access and
branding for their products.

8- As our national partners appreciated the implementing of such new technology in

Bangladesh, IRRI together with BRRI and HSTU University has submitted a proposal
to as PBRG project to BARC under National Agricultural Technology Program Phase
II (NATP2) for Bangladesh.

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