Development of grain moisture and temperature probe.

Abstract

Grains are the main source of food to millions of people living across the world today. They are grown by large population on both small and large scale this implies that output production capacity is much -so this would. result into storage of grains to prolong their quality and maximize the. quantity. Grains handling during. post value require transportation, drying, storage however grains managers tend to st01W grains with insufficient moisture content but even if they store at the tight moisture content there is always moisture migration in the store due environment temperature differences, moisture and temperature are the critical factors that activates a friendly environment for development of insects, moulds and others. The grain losses in the stores is approximated to be 13% out of 30% the total post-harvest losses encountered in the handling of the grains. The existing Primary methods of moisture and temperature determination using dry oven and Karl Fischer methods are time Consuming. Destructive in the way that sample used cannot be altered to its initial state, and be used for its intended purpose, require use of chemical reagents that are expensive to buy and disposal. The purpose of this project was to make a friendly and time saving and non-destructive device that can detect both moisture and temperature of grains with a minimum skill to operate so the development of grain moisture and temperature probe would require. Identification of suitable components, fabrication of the probe, also coding of the probe, and testing of the prototype of the project.