<p>Aiming to help rural people, students of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE) have designed and developed a leg-operated millet dehuller, which converts raw millets into consumable form.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The project was completed by Arjun S, Faraaz, K J Nitish and Mohan C G at Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) under the guidance of scientist Sathyendra Rao B V and VVCE assistant professor Gurukiran.<br /><br />Speaking to Deccan Herald, the students said the leg-operated millet dehuller can be used for removing husk and outer layer of bran. “Developed at a cost of Rs 5,000”, the students said “our product is cheaper than other similar products available in the market.”<br /><br /> They said the advantage of the leg-operated millet dehuller is that it can also be used without electricity, which is a major problem in rural areas. They said the product could be used to dehusk millets such as foxtail, kodo and barnyard.<br /><br />The team of students has designed the project keeping in mind the International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) global project, which has been keen on promoting mechanical processing instead of traditional household processing techniques. <br /><br />A key factor, while designing the product, was to ensure that locally-available materials were used. According to the test results, the leg-operated millet dehuller can dehusk foxtail millet up to 84 per cent at the rated speed of 4140 rpm.<br /><br />Another important reason for considering millets is that it is a major food source in arid and semiarid regions across the world. <br /><br />They can often be used in recipes in place of rice as the crops have higher nutritional value as compared to rice, they claimed. Explaining the process of processing millets, they said traditional methods were cumbersome as it involves heavy manual work, such as grinding and threshing of millets.<br /><br />Process<br /><br />Millets are fed into the center of the blower using a hopper. The grains are thrown outwards by a fan which rotates at high speed and hits the air blower casing, dehusking of the grains. <br /><br />The mixture of dehusked grains from the blower is sent to the separator through a duct. <br /><br />The separator is a hollow cylindrical body where the exit from the blower is connected so that a whirl of air is created inside the separator. <br /><br />Subsequently, the light-weight husk moves upwards and the grains fall down, which is collected separately.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Aiming to help rural people, students of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE) have designed and developed a leg-operated millet dehuller, which converts raw millets into consumable form.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The project was completed by Arjun S, Faraaz, K J Nitish and Mohan C G at Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) under the guidance of scientist Sathyendra Rao B V and VVCE assistant professor Gurukiran.<br /><br />Speaking to Deccan Herald, the students said the leg-operated millet dehuller can be used for removing husk and outer layer of bran. “Developed at a cost of Rs 5,000”, the students said “our product is cheaper than other similar products available in the market.”<br /><br /> They said the advantage of the leg-operated millet dehuller is that it can also be used without electricity, which is a major problem in rural areas. They said the product could be used to dehusk millets such as foxtail, kodo and barnyard.<br /><br />The team of students has designed the project keeping in mind the International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) global project, which has been keen on promoting mechanical processing instead of traditional household processing techniques. <br /><br />A key factor, while designing the product, was to ensure that locally-available materials were used. According to the test results, the leg-operated millet dehuller can dehusk foxtail millet up to 84 per cent at the rated speed of 4140 rpm.<br /><br />Another important reason for considering millets is that it is a major food source in arid and semiarid regions across the world. <br /><br />They can often be used in recipes in place of rice as the crops have higher nutritional value as compared to rice, they claimed. Explaining the process of processing millets, they said traditional methods were cumbersome as it involves heavy manual work, such as grinding and threshing of millets.<br /><br />Process<br /><br />Millets are fed into the center of the blower using a hopper. The grains are thrown outwards by a fan which rotates at high speed and hits the air blower casing, dehusking of the grains. <br /><br />The mixture of dehusked grains from the blower is sent to the separator through a duct. <br /><br />The separator is a hollow cylindrical body where the exit from the blower is connected so that a whirl of air is created inside the separator. <br /><br />Subsequently, the light-weight husk moves upwards and the grains fall down, which is collected separately.<br /><br /></p>
