The proportion of broken grain and the whiteness of the product are two major factors that determine the quality and value of rice. As a matter of fact, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set up rice grader for rough as well as milled rice in order to help both the farmers and buyers identify the particular quality of their rice before the sale.

A rice quality testing tool can help farmers to ensure the quality of their rice prior to harvest and milling and increase their crop’s profit. The Kett PQ520, a single kernel moisture tester, reveals a sample’s moisture distribution. The ideal time to harvest the rice is when that moisture distribution narrows. Farmers can also use the RN300, RN600, and TX200 testing instruments from Kett to measure the grain quality of their rice kernels, as they still need to understand their harvest quality standards to meet the highest grade and highest price point.

Rice processing machines produced in developed countries are mostly unaffordable by rural farmers, hence there was need to develop cost effective/efficient machines produced from available local materials desirable in food industry that meets the need of the rural farmers. This study was to evaluate the performance of a developed rice destoner at Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Minitab 16 was used for analysis of variance of two main factors [four paddy varieties Faro 35, Faro 44, Faro 55 and Ofada and five moisture content (MC) groups] to obtain its optimum operational parameters. Cleaning efficiency, coefficient of dehulling, coefficient of wholeness, dehulling efficiency, dehulling recovery and output capacity were optimum at 94.60%, 0.63, 0.85, 50.54%, 61.22% and 18.53 kg/h respectively. The effect of MC and test paddy variety on coefficient of wholeness and dehulling efficiency were significant while only MC effect was significant at P