Performance Evaluation and Cost Benefit Analysis of Barn Drying of Chillies

摘要

Large scale drying experiments using chillies in unutilized tobacco barns indicated that the average drying rate is 0.0633 kg/kg.hr. The thermal efficiency of the barn drying system was found to be 8.45%. The cost of barn drying varied from Rs.2.88 to3.69 per kg of dry chilli depending upon whether the pod is, thin pericarp type variety or thick pericarp type hybrid. Farmers have to incur an additional cost ranging from Rs.2.11 to 2.76 per kg dry chilli in barn drying in comparison to farmer's method which costs only Rs.0.77 to 0.93 per kg dry chilli. ' However, the additional cost of barn drying can be compensated by additional income due to reduced percentage of discolored pods and by the premium price offered to the quality, particularly for export. Conversion of unutilized barns to produce quality dried chilli has a benefit-cost ratio of 1.57 and 1.76 for thin pericarp type varieties and thick pericarp type hybrids, respectively in comparison to farmer's practice which has a benefit-cost ratioof 1.28 and 1.51 for thin pericarp type varieties and thick pericarp type hybrids, respectively.