Rice milling is the oldest and the largest agro processing industry of the country. It has a turn over of more than Rs.25,500 crore per annum. It processes about 85 million tonnes of paddy per year and provides staple food grain and other valuable products required by over 60% of the population. Paddy grain is milled either in raw condition or after par-boiling, mostly by single hullers of which over 82,000 are registered in the country. Apart from it there are also a large number of unregistered single hulling units in the country. A good number (60%) of these are also linked with par-boiling units and sun -drying yards.
Most of the tiny hullers of about 250-300 kg/hr capacities are employed for custom milling of paddy. Apart from it double hulling units number over 2,600 units, underrun disc shellers cum cone polishers numbering 5,000 units and rubber roll shellers cum friction polishers numbering over 10,000 units are also present in the country. Further over the years there has been a steady growth of improved rice mills in the country. Most of these have capacities ranging from 2 tonnes /hr to 10 tonnes/ hr.