ICAR AIEEA-PG — Agricultural Engineering & Technology (Major Subject Group 10) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersMoisture, drying, parboiling, milling, cleaning, size reduction and conveying of grains, pulses and oilseeds.
In the exams: GATE AG Section 6 (~14 marks a year 2019–26; psychrometry in all 8 papers, rice milling in 6 of 8); ICAR AIEEA-PG Unit VI; ICAR AICE subject 41; NCEES PE processing; PRC ABE bioprocess; ASRB NET ASPE
ICAR AIEEA-PG — Agricultural Engineering & Technology
Unit VI (biological materials, processing, storage) tests definitions and standard relations: moisture bases, EMC and isotherms, psychrometric properties, dryer types, parboiling methods and effects, rice, wheat, pulse and oil milling flows, cleaning and grading machines, size-reduction laws and conveyors. Questions are single-answer MCQs with negative marking, so precise recall of which machine separates by which property matters.
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA-PG spread across the units of Post-Harvest Engineering of Cereals, Pulses & Oilseeds. Difficulty: 39 easy, 16 medium, 3 hard.
| Moisture content: wet and dry basis | 7 | |
| Cleaning, grading and screening effectiveness | 6 | |
| Psychrometry and properties of air | 5 | |
| Parboiling and hydrothermal treatment | 5 | |
| Paddy and rice milling: husking, whitening, polishing and yields | 5 | |
| Wheat milling | 5 | |
| Equilibrium moisture content and sorption isotherms | 4 | |
| Drying theory: constant and falling rate periods | 3 | |
| Grain dryers: bin, LSU, recirculating, fluidised-bed and solar | 3 | |
| Pulse milling | 3 | |
| Oil expression and solvent extraction | 3 | |
| Size reduction: Rittinger, Kick and Bond laws | 3 | |
| Seed processing | 3 | |
| Conveying: belt, bucket, screw and pneumatic | 2 | |
| Thin-layer drying models | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A sample of pulses holds 25% moisture on a dry basis. Its wet-basis moisture content is
A. 20%
M_wb = M_db/(1 + M_db) = 0.25/1.25 = 0.20, i.e. 20% wb. 33.3% comes from using M_db/(1 − M_db), the wrong direction of conversion. 18.8% multiplies by (1 − M_db) instead of dividing by (1 + M_db); 25% leaves the value unconverted.
Further reading: Chakraverty, Post Harvest Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds
A capacitance-type grain moisture meter works mainly because
B. water has a much higher dielectric constant than dry grain matter
Capacitance meters measure the dielectric constant (permittivity) of the sample; water's permittivity is far higher than that of dry matter. Conduction is the principle of resistance meters, and NIR absorption is a different instrument.
Further reading: Chakraverty, Post Harvest Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds
Air is at 30 °C and 50% RH (p_vs at 30 °C = 4.246 kPa). Given saturation pressures of 2.064 kPa at 18 °C and 2.198 kPa at 19 °C, its dew point is closest to
A. 18.4 °C
p_v = 0.5 × 4.246 = 2.123 kPa. The dew point is where p_vs = p_v: interpolating, 18 + (2.123 − 2.064)/(2.198 − 2.064) = 18.4 °C. The dew point equals the dry-bulb (30 °C) only at 100% RH. 18.0 °C takes the lower table value without interpolating; 15.0 °C halves the dry-bulb temperature.
Further reading: ASABE D271
Compared with raw rice from the same paddy, parboiled rice usually gives
A. higher head rice yield
Gelatinised starch fills voids and heals cracks, hardening the kernel so it resists breakage in the mill. So parboiled rice gives fewer broken kernels than raw rice.
Further reading: Chakraverty, Post Harvest Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds
Wheat is conditioned (tempered) with water before milling chiefly to
D. toughen the bran and mellow the endosperm so they separate cleanly
Toughened bran stays in large flakes and mellowed endosperm reduces easily with less energy. Conditioning does not gelatinise starch; that is parboiling.
Further reading: Posner and Hibbs, Wheat Flour Milling
Dhal milling of pulses consists essentially of
D. dehulling the seed and splitting it into cotyledons
Dhal is the dehulled, usually split, cotyledon; flour and oil are different products.
Further reading: Chakraverty, Post Harvest Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds
Commercial dhal recovery falls short of the theoretical yield mainly because
D. abrasion removes cotyledon as powder and produces brokens along with the husk
Abrasive dehullers cannot remove husk without also removing some cotyledon, and splitting creates brokens. Moisture change during pretreatment is balanced out when yields are corrected to the same moisture.
Further reading: Chakraverty, Post Harvest Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds
In solvent extraction of oilseeds, 'miscella' is
A. the solution of oil in solvent leaving the extractor
Miscella is distilled to separate oil from solvent, which is condensed and reused. The meal goes to the desolventiser-toaster.
Further reading: Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products
An indented cylinder (trieur) separates particles mainly by
D. length
Short particles lodge in the indents and are lifted into a trough; long ones slide out. Density is exploited by gravity tables and texture by velvet rolls.
Further reading: Chakraverty, Post Harvest Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds
Which size-reduction law is generally considered most applicable to fine grinding?
A. Rittinger's law
Rittinger relates energy to new surface area, which dominates in fine grinding. Kick fits coarse crushing; Bond lies between; Stokes' law concerns settling.
Further reading: Earle, Unit Operations in Food Processing
Ten here, 58 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AIEEA-PG in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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