Parboiling is a major processing factor affecting the quality of milled rice. In this study, a paddy rice parboiler was designed, fabricated and its performance evaluated. During the design and fabrication, of the parboiler considerations were given to the cost of fabrication, simplicity of operation by the local farmers, portability and easy mechanism of loading and offloading the paddy. Performance testing of the machine was carried out at three different levels of steeping temperature (60, 70 and 80℃) andat different steeping time of 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5hrs respectively to determine the effects of steeping temperature and time on the parboiling efficiency and the milling quality of the parboiled rice grains. The optimum parboiling efficiency of 95% and corresponding milling quality of 91% was obtained at 70℃ steeping temperature and at 3hrs of steeping time. The results of the statistical analysis of the data obtained from the performance evaluation of the machine revealed that both the steeping temperature and time has significant effects on the parboiling efficiency and the milling quality of the rice grains at 0.05 confidence limit. The production cost of the parboiler is $275.
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