Developed by a rice miller in Raichur, Karnataka, it can analyse samples within minutes

BENGALURU, MARCH 29
Palm de-husking, the conventional practice to assess paddy samples, could soon be a thing of the past.
A rice-miller based in Raichur, Karnataka, has developed a paddy scanner that carries out a physical analysis of the sample within minutes and helps buyers — mainly millers and procurement agencies — make informed decisions and curb pilferages.
“The device, named Amvicube Paddy Analyser – PA-200, is the first of its kind in the world,” claimed Vikram A Sreerama, managing partner of Shriya Rice Mills in Raichur.
“The scanner works on the principle of absorption and reflection technology and is powered with a simple touchscreen. Once the grains are placed in the designated tray, the scanner analyses the paddy for its physical qualities — such as length and width — while identifying the percentage of brokens, all without removing the husk,” he adds.
Apart from palm de-husking, rice millers also currently use small mills, where 100-200 grams of paddy is milled to identify the percentage of brokens and colour.
PA-200 also helps identify contamination, by finding out the mixture of other variety grains in the sample, if any, and displays the result within 2.5 minutes, which can then be e-mailed or sent through SMS, says Sreerama, managing partner of Amvicube, the start-up that has developed the product using various electronic components largely available in the country.
“Besides the design, it is more to do with the calibration, alignment, sensor orientation and algorithims,” says Sreerama, adding that the scanner can store the results and also has an in-built printer.
While the Karnataka government has provided a grant for Amvicube to help commercialise PA-200, the Centre has assisted the company in filing a patent for PA-200, which is priced at around ₹6 lakh.
Amvicube has sold about 25 scanners, mainly in Raichur, and is in talks with entities such as Rashtriya e-Market Services, which operates the unified markets platform in the APMCs of Karnataka and e-NAM, to deploy these machines as the talk of assaying gains ground in the agri-marketing space.
Amvicube figured as the most innovative product in the post-harvest space at the recent Indo-Israel Agri Challenge.
“We are looking at bigger companies to take this product across the country and plan to come out with variants that can sample pulses such as tur, chana and other grains,” Sreerama adds.
Himanshu Jobanputra of Shreeji Agrotech in Raichur, who has been using PA-200 for three months now, says the scanner helps him determine the accurate price of paddy. Millers normally depend on middlemen to purchase paddy and the price depends on the extent of brokens in the grains.
“Accurate identification of brokens through scanning helps fix the right price, thus avoiding pilferages,” Himanshu adds.
However, at ₹6 lakh, the scanner is out of reach for millers, many of whom lease out mills for ₹5 lakh per annum, says Krishna Rao of the Pattabhi Agro Foods and president of Rice Exporters Association. “Maybe it is targeted at large mills, mainly the basmati people,” he adds