Significant Achievements:
Sub-project 1: Evaluation of existing pre-milling treatments and development of improved pre-milling treatments for ease of pulse milling.
1. Design and development of Compressed Air Dehusking Unit (To be submitted for patent)
2. Design and development of Nylon Rope Polisher (To be submitted for patent).
Sub-project 2: Processing of pulse seeds and development of methods for their long-term storage.
i) Fumigated and sun-dried seeds of mungbean (Shikha variety), were stored in different packaging materials, viz., jute bags, cotton bag, PP woven bags, metal and plastic bins, LDPE, HDPE and laminated bags (under normal and vacuum conditions). Observations were recorded for seed viability, entomological, physical and milling parameters after regular interval of four months for 36 months of storage.
ii) The study indicated that viability of seeds can be maintained in LDPE (Vacuum), HDPE (Normal) and Laminated Plastic Film (Normal), packaging methods with viability of 81, 84 and 74% respectively for storage period of 20 months., whereas, viability can be maintained between 74 to 87 in in all the packaging materials up to 16 months. As initial field infestation was controlled and external infestation was prevented all the packaging materials maintained the dal recovery.
