Storage facilities, handling systems, and atmospheric conditions can significantly affect the quality and value of the grain. Artificial intelligence and machine learning methodologies could be applied to the grain storage industry and transform the way that managers interact with the silo, receive information on grain condition. They could improve the accuracy and efficiency of the existing grain management tools but also create new innovative ones.
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt trade flows and keeps more than 2.5 billion people under lockdowns, some grain exporters, including Russia and Kazakhstan, restrict exports to ensure enough supplies for their own populations. And grain importers countries like Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and the Philippines are steping up efforts to top up their grain reserves. In Egypt, the world’s largest grain buyer, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered an increase in the country’s strategic reserves of staple goods, while in the Philippines, which relies on Vietnam as its largest rice supplier, the government decided to import rice to shore up supplies.
In this process where the food supply chain has come to a breaking point, it has been understood how vital grain storage is. Grains are the main staple food in most of the nations and account for the maximum postharvest losses on a calorific basis among all agricultural commodities. With safe storage, proper grain handling, we can reduce postharvest losses. Safe storage for grains is possible with a good pre-cleaning, temperature tracking and with the right cooling-conditioning equipment.
The modern storage with steel-silo systems enables operations such as the grain loading, unloading, transfer, and deliver to be carried out more rapidly and effectively with a single button.
Grains stored for a long time can decay. You can only detect the decay, disease or infestation in mass only through temperature increase. Silo temperature monitoring or temperature control systems give early warning about heat in the silos to prevent large-scale waste. These systems are one of the integral parts of the grain storage.