A Simplified and Portable Capacitance Sensor to Measure Moisture Content of Paddy

Abstract

The moisture content in agricultural products will affect the quality. Fungi developmenthappens if the moisture content is not optimum. This paper presents a non – destructive, simple,fast and low cost interface circuit to measure the moisture content of paddy grains heated indifferent temperature. The arrangement used is a high precision impedance converter. Ceramiccapacitors of different values were used to check the measuring circuit. Using this circuit,moisture content of representative standard samples was measured and dielectric constant wascalculated. The paper discusses the principle, technique, methodology and experimental set upused and the results obtained.