POST HARVEST EQUIPMENTS IN TUBER CROPS- REVIEWHEMASANKARI PALAN, S.K. NANDA1, M.S. SAJEEV, J.T. SHERIFFUDIN AND G. PADMAJAAbstract Mechanization is important in tuber crop post harvest unit operations to process the freshly harvested cassava and other tuber crops before getting spoilt. Cassava tubers are rich in its starch content and can also be used in the edible form. Post harvest equipments in tuber crops includes washers, both mechanical washers and manual washing, then peeling using a manually operated peeling knife and a mechanical peeler for major tuber crop, Cassava, abrasive peeler, then size reduction equipments, slices, chips and graters using cassava chipping machine, manually operated including hand, pedal operated and mechanically operated cassava chipping machine, strip cutter including cuber and sorter, grater pulverizor, dryer of manual method including sun drying, hand dryer, mechanical driers of solar drier, electrical drier, equipments in starch extraction including rasper, starch settling units of hydrocyclones and centrifuges for the starch industry. In this paper all the post harvest equipments developed both in India and abroad had been given to know all the equipments and machineries developed so far in the post harvest technology of tuber crops. This paper also clearly explains the necessity for all these equipments in tuber crop post harvest technology to minimize the post harvest technology losses, that is usually 10%. |