Bangladesh is one of the world's top
rice-consuming countries. The per capita rice consumption stoodat196.6
kilograms in FY2016 and 196.3 kilograms in FY2017 (The University of Arkansas,
2017). Rice is the most important cereal and staple food which provide more
than 70 percent of the total calorie intake in Bangladesh (Zaman, Mishima,
Hisano, & Gergely, 2001). Bangladesh has three seasons of rice production
namely Aus (summer), Aman (winter) and Boro (spring). The aggregated production
of Aus (2.6 million MT), Aman (13.2 million MT) and Boro (18.7 million MT)
paddies has been estimated to be 34.5 million metric tons (MT) in FY2016 by
using total 11.77 million hectares (HA) of land (Lagos & Hossain,
2016)which is more than 75 percent of total cropped land (BARC, 2011).
However, after harvesting paddy from the
crops field, it needs to be processed for consumption. There are three stages
of rice processing which includes parboiling, drying, and milling. This process
can be conducted both at home and at the rice mill. The small scale paddy
processing is conducted at home for the non-commercial purpose, precisely for
the family consumption. Dheki1is the main instrument to process paddy after it
is parboiled and dried. Another way of small scale paddy processing is conducted
in the village rice mill or small husking mill for the family consumption.
Small rice husking machine can also be the main instrument to process paddy
after it is parboiled and dried at home. The large scale of paddy processing is
mainly conducted by the rice mill which is known as a commercial
milling3center.
Generally, two types of commercial mills are
available in Bangladesh: modern or automated rice mill and husking or
traditional rice mill. Modern or automatic rice mills holds out roughly all
activities through a mechanical process, including categorization of rocks
& unfilled grains, grain marinating, boiling, drying, milling, polishing
& bagging. On the other hand, traditional commercial mills or Husking mill
is the oldest processing method of paddy. They are often made of wood with few
metal components and are often driven by a single power source through a system
of transmissions (Islam, 2014). This study mainly focuses on commercial milling
system of Bangladesh.
Considering above, Friends Corporation coupled a good number of professional and technical expertise
along with extensive industry knowledge to provide the sustainable total
solutions to establish a Auto Rice Milling Plant with cost effective manner.