| Summary: | Rice milling is the final step of the milled rice production chain with a decisive role in the quantity and quality of the final product. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to select the best rice milling system when renewing the milling industry of this strategic crop. As such, the present study used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to assess and compare four rice milling system types conventionally used in Guilan province in northern Iran, including (i) blade friction-type milling system (blade husker + blade whitener), (ii) modified blade friction-type milling system (rubber roller husker + blade whitener), (iii) bladeless friction-type milling system (rubber roller husker + bladeless friction-type whitener), and (iv) modern (abrasive) milling system (rubber roller husker + separator + abrasive whitener), by five criteria including compatibility with crop conditions, marketability of the final crop, infrastructure requirement to launch the milling system, head rice yield, and milling recovery. The results of AHP showed that the criteria of crop marketability, compatibility with crop conditions, and head rice yield were the most important factors in selecting appropriate rice milling system with the weights of 0.371, 0.214 and 0.196, respectively. In the final comparison, bladeless friction-type milling system was found to be the most appropriate milling system for Guilan province, Iran. Abrasive rice milling system was identified as the second most appropriate rice milling system. Thus, it is recommended that the blade friction-type milling systems be replaced by the bladeless friction-type rice milling system to promote the rice mills’ performance.
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