PADI POST HARVEST LOSSES IN TANJONG KARANG, SELANGOR

ROHANI MD. YON AND SAMSUDIN AHMAD

SUMMARY

This study was conducted to determine the magnitude of losses in the padi post-harvest system in Tanjong Karang. A survey was carried out in the area during the main harvesting season beginning from March until June, 1981. Since harvesting operation was manually done, several factors such as lack of labour, delay in harvesting and threshing, improper threshing and handling, and the variety of padi planted, played important roles in contributing to both harvesting and thresbing losses. The amount of padi loss was about 3.48%-7.42% and 0.12%-1.54% for threshing and harvesting respectively. Higher amount of padi was lost due to improper threshing as substantial amount was thrown away with the straws. The percentage of unthreshed padi lost ranged between 2.46% -6.02 percent. Losses due to spillage were much lower ranging from 1.02%-7.65 percent. Losses during milling was mainly related to grain breakage. The total amount of breakage observed was significantly higher in small mills. A total of 39.5% and 8.8% reduction of head rice yield was observed in the small and large mills respectively. The main factor responsible for the higher amount of breakage was the compact single pass milling system found in most small mills. During the hulling process only 0.7% of the grains were lost. Storage losses were significantly higher in the large mills where an average of 22.8% of the grains were lost. Only 2%-5% losses during storage were found in the small mills. The differences were due to the amount, storage time and storage methods used bv the millers.

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