Parboiled Goan rice mini mill for local paddy

This is a small rice mill that parboils paddy (soaks, steams and dries it), then removes the husk, polishes and packs it as ukde rice, the parboiled rice many Goan families eat every day. It also mills farmers' own paddy for a fee, so households can eat rice from their own fields.

NABARD's 2023-24 credit plan for South Goa lists paddy on 19,486 ha (hectares) among the district's main crops. The plan says most farmers here are marginal or small, and that processing, farmer-level aggregation and product branding are needed for better prices. It also records seven farmer producer organisations being formed in the district, which could supply paddy in bulk. Parboiling at home in big pots is hot, slow work that a nearby mill can take over.

You need an FSSAI food licence, soaking tanks, a small boiler, a dryer, a husking and polishing machine, covered storage and a heavy-duty power connection. The hard part is supply. Paddy comes in only at harvest from many small farms, many fields now lie fallow, and local paddy can cost more than rice brought in from neighbouring states. The mill may stand idle for months.

Sell sealed bags of ukde rice through Margao shops and supermarkets, to Goan families who prefer rice from Goan fields, and to restaurants that serve Goan thalis.