Methods of Rice Milling in Tanganyika Together with Some Comments

Abstract

Hand hulling is usually only carried out in an area that produces small quantities, or not sufficient to maintain a mechanical unit. Hand hulling is chiefly the beating of paddy in, usually, a wooden receptacle, with a piece of wood, such as is used for beating the native food. The paddy is beaten for a short period of 10 to 15 minutes, then it is taken out of the receptacle and poured on to a piece of cloth on the ground from a height of five to six feet.(In some cases the natives avail themselves of a rock to stand on and then the height may be up to twenty feet.) By pouring the partly dehusking paddy through the air to the ground, the loose husks are carried some distance away by the breeze, and the dehusked and unhusked fall on to the cloth. The unhusked is picked out and returned for a further treatment, until it is all dehusked. After enough dehusked grains are produced, these are again put into the receptacle and beaten, the furtjhel beating together, causing the rubbing of the rice grains against each other, tends to rub off the bran and so produces partially polished rice. The amount of rice produced per hour is approximately 3 to 4 kilos, but varies according to the age of the paddy, and the energy of the operator. The mechanical" huller"(which is in my opinion misnamed, for the term" hulling" should apply only to dehusking paddy), also often erroneously referred to as" mills", combines in one composite machine the two processes or hulling and polishing. It is cheap in comparison with a proper milling unit; capacity for capacity, a milling unit costs about three times• that of a huller. The milling unit is, however, more economical in horse-power consumption, and has more adjustment. On account of their initial cheapness these hullers have been of value as pioneer units to test developing rice areas.