Harvesting period of maize which is one of the major cash crops of Thailand is during September to December. Maize is stored on cob or instantaneously shelled mainly by machine. Most of the maize shellers are locally-produced and handled by contractors or middle- men. History reveals that Thai farmers have been familiar with maize sheller since 1929. Development of maize sheller was conducted mostly by local manufacturers and resulting in the machine that is widely used. In 1984, there were 12,568 shellers in use.1 However, no testing and evaluation on its performance have been done. It is necessary to test the performance of existing shellers because the results will best help farmers and related agencies to make decision on the selection as well as promote further research and development amongst local manufac- turers in producing appropriate shellers.
