Abstract

Thermal imaging is a technique which converts the invisible radiation emitted by an object into temperature data (visible image) without making contact with the object. This method is widely used for determination of surface temperatures, grain quality measurement like infested kernel, and presence of foreign bodies (dead insects, stones, rat excreta)in food produces. This paper reviews importance of thermal imaging in grain storage. The spoilage of grains occurs due to inadequate storage facilities, which leads to improper interactions between abiotic (temperature, moisture content, and gases composition) and biotic (grain itself, insects, fungi, moulds, and mites) factors. The grain storage losses can be reduced by understanding the stored grain ecosystem. This can be done by adopting loss detection and prevention techniques to increase the availability of grains for human consumption. Though the pre-treatments like cleaning and drying are necessary to obtain safe moisture content for better storage, the storage structure design and its construction plays a vital role in application of loss detection technology for reducing the losses during storage. Therefore, development of appropriate storage methodology for reducing grain losses has become a global challenge. Hence, an instantaneous study is required to understand interactions of these factors and manage them in appropriate manner to reduce the loss of grains both quantitatively and qualitatively. So application of thermal imaging would be an appropriate tool to protect the stored grains by detecting the hot spots by measuring grain temperature in storage bins.