Now crops can be dried even during the night with the help of a solar dryer that can store heat in a special rock bed unit. The solar dryer consists of a solar collector, a rock bed heat storage unit, a drying chamber and a chimney. Part of the heat collected by the solar collector is used to heat rock pebbles fitted in the energy storage unit. The heated pebbles are used after sunset for drying operations. The dryer is suitable for drying agricultural products such as paddy, cereals and coconut (Vatis Update, Vol 2, No 17).