Secondary Agriculture
Protected Cultivation practices can be defined as a cropping
technique where in the micro climate surrounding the plant body is
controlled partially or fully as per the requirement of the vegetable
species grown during their period of growth.
Primary Agriculture:- It includes specific farming operations such as
cultivation & tillage of the soil, growing & harvesting of any
agricultural or horticultural commodities.
Secondary Agriculture:- It provides value addition to agricultural
products, creating facilities for primary processing & stress
management in agriculture & adds value to the basic agro
commodities to allow farmers to get better returns from their
harvest.
• Creates a new job in the rural sector to grow rural economy.
Examples:
i. Vitamins from grains
ii. Oil from rice bran
iii. Starched sugar from corn
iv. Milk & Protein from soybean
• The main purpose of Secondary Agriculture is to minimise the
qualitative & quantitative deterioration of the material after
harvest.
Agricultural Processing is defined as an activity which is performed
to maintain or improve the quality or to change the form or
characteristics of an agricultural product.
Different Processing operations performed on various crops:-
• Some of the agricultural processing operations performed on
various crops (cereals, pulses & oilseeds) are cleaning, grading,
sorting, drying, cooling, storage, milling, size reduction, expelling,
mixing, blending, packaging, waste utilisation, seed treatment etc.
• A Processing job consists of a series of ‘unit operation’.
• The sequence of processing operations may broadly be classified
as:-
i. Cleaning, grading & sorting
ii. Drying & Dehydration
iii. Storage
iv. Milling
v. Handling, Packaging and transportation &
vi. Agricultural wastes & by-products utilisation
1. Cleaning, grading & sorting :-
• After harvesting & threshing crops contain organic & inorganic
impurities like straw, chaff, weed seeds, iron pieces, stones, mud
etc.
• Grains with impurities give lower price.
• Presence of foreign matters increases the bulk, hence increases
cost of handling & transportation.
• It may cause wear & tear in processing machines.
• Hence, cleaning of grains & other agricultural products is very
important & should be performed before any further processing
operation.
• Grading of cleaned seed is done to obtain good quality seed with
higher germination & viability.
2. Drying:-
• Grains are generally harvested at higher moisture content to
reduce harvesting losses.
• This moisture content is unsafe for storage & milling.
• Drying of grains is most widely used method for their preservation.
Example: Improper drying causes increase in breakage of maize &
soybean & decrease in milling quality of rice & wheat
Crop Optimum moisture content Storage moisture content (% w.b.)
at harvest (% w.b.) 6-12 months Over 1 year
Wheat 16 - 18 12 10
Paddy 20 – 22 12 10
Maize 20 – 23 12 10
Sorghum 20 - 22 12 10
Pigeonpea --- 10 8
Bengalgram --- 10 8
Soybean --- 10 8
Groundnut 10 – 12 8 7
Mustard --- 8 6
Table: Moisture content of some of the cereals, pulses and oilseeds at harvest &
for safe storage
3. Storage:-
• Bulk of the post harvest losses occur during storage.
• The storage losses of grains are due to the insects, fungus,
rodents, birds, moisture etc.
• To minimise storage losses, knowledge of scientific ways of
storage is necessary.
• Maintenance of hygienic conditions during storage is necessary.
4. Milling:-
• The food grains contain a large centrally located starchy
endosperm which is also rich in protein.
• These seeds are covered with protective layers of hull & bran.
• The grains contain germ which is high in oil & is enzymatically
active & it may produce rancidity in the grain.
• Therefore, the hull & germ are removed in milling operation.
• The starchy & proteinous endosperm is obtained by milling.
Examples:
i) Dehusking & splitting of pulses. (dhal)
• Pulses are rich in protein, it supply 15-30 % of daily protein to
Indian people.
ii) Extraction of oil from the oil bearing materials.
iii) Extraction of juices from various products.
5. Material handling:-
• The performance of any processing activity is affected by the
movement of material from one unit operation to another.
• Optimisation of time & movement of material in a processing
plant are necessary to minimise cost of operation & maximise
profit.
• Knowledge of correct layout of handling equipment is desirable.
6. Waste & by-products utilisation :-
• In rural areas, about 80 % of the total energy is consumed i.e.
used for cooking food & it is obtained from wood, crop residue &
cow dung.
• 50 % of energy can be saved by using improved cooking stoves &
furnaces.
• Economic utilisation of food grain milling by-products can
improve the ways for modernisation of pulses & rice mills.