Efficiency and ergonomic evaluation of farm women for maize shelling
| dc.contributor.advisor | Kala, Shishir | |
| dc.contributor.author | Kumari, Puja | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-02-07T07:22:31Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-02-07T07:22:31Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Women produce more than 50 per cent of the total world food (FAO, 1995). Women‟s contribution in agricultural labour force in developed countries is 36.7 per cent while, it is about 43.6 per cent in developing countries. Women workforce in agriculture was 35.1 in 1991, which rose to 39 per cent in 2001 and it was agriculture and allied sectors is 98 million, which is 37 per cent of total wage workers (Census, 2011). They perform almost all agricultural activities right from sowing to harvesting and post-harvest activities. Most of the drudgery prone tasks for women in agriculture are cutting, uprooting, transplanting, weeding, sowing alongwith post-harvest tasks like manual threshing of maize, millet and pulses sieving and cleaning. Traditionally shelling of maize is done either by threshing cobs or removal of seeds by hand. Studies have revealed that the farm activities are time and labour intensive, monotonous, repetitive and more drudgery prone are generally performed by the women. Since all the operations are done manually, which cause considerable physical and mental fatigue and other health problems. The root cause of their sufferings is unawareness or ignorance about improved technologies, age-old methods of doing the work, inappropriateness of the technology and attitudinal constraints such as innate conservation and resistance to change. Study was planned with objective to compare physiological work load and muscular pain and assess efficiency of Maize Sheller as compared to manual maize shelling. The study was conducted in Samastipur District of Bihar state. Samastipur is one of the thirty-eight Districts of Bihar in India. The District also boasts of a Central Agricultural University in Pusa, well known as Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar. From each selected village 30 respondents were selected by experimental was conducted on control group i.e 15 respondents from both the selected village and further information were gathered with the help of personal interview schedule. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the efficiency and ergonomic evaluation of farm women for maize shelling. Keeping in view the objectives of the study, related information were gathered pertaining to socio- personal profile, anthropometric measurement of respondents, physiological problem during maize shelling activities, various crop parameters and machine parameter. For getting results of the study data were analysed by applying suitable formula and statistical method i.e. percentage, mean, standard deviation, coefficient of correlation and paired t-test were applied for getting accuracy of the results. The result of the study indicated that the socio personal profile of farm women in control and general group was found different. The study reveals that in case of control group an equal number of respondents i.e 33.30 per cent were in each three category of age. Whereas in general group the maximum number of respondents (46.6 %) were in age group of 21-30 years. Under control group (63.3 %) respondents were having their large family size. Whereas in general group majority of women (53.3 %) were having large family size. So far as family education of control group is concerned a majority of respondents had medium family educational status (50%). In general group a majority of respondents were having their medium education level (43.3%). In case of control group a maximum of respondents (43.3%) were belonged to EBC category. But in case of general group maximum respondents (36.6%) were belonged to OBC category. In both control and general group majority of respondents (60 %) were involved in farming. Data pertaining to ergonomic evaluation of farm women highlighted that in control group, majority of respondents had their body mass index (73.3 %) were in normal category. While in general group the majority of respondents (60%) were in normal category. Further the physiological data revealed that in traditional method the average energy expenditure of farm women was found higher (6.07 Kj m-1) than the Univ. developed maize sheller i.e. 6.04 Kj m-1 respectively. In traditional method total cardiac costs of work and physiological costs of work of respondents were found to be were found to be (172.51) and (9.76) respectively. Whereas in University developed maize sheller total cardiac costs of work and physiological costs of work were calculated to (75.65) and (17.40) respectively. The results pertaining to the output of machine which indicated that University developed maize sheller had its output of 70.20 (kg/hr) in comparison to traditional method 16.97 (kg/hr). This machine, findings highlighted that the output of the traditional method is very low. Average time taken for removing grain from five kg maize cobs was 17.68 minutes in case of traditional methods and by use of University developed maize sheller took only 4.28 minutes. The overall shelling efficiency of the traditional method was found to be 86.15 per cent, slightly less than the shelling efficiency of the University developed maize sheller was 87.73 per cent. The correlation coefficient of twenty two selected independent variables co- related with three dependent variables. The analysis of results related to output revealed that in the age group of 21-30 years the independent variables such as family type (0.700*) was found to be significant at 5% level of probability. Whereas time (0.996**) came to be significant at 1% level of probability. In University developed Maize Sheller result shows that the independent variables such as family size (0.693*) and height of respondents (0.650*) was found to be significant at 5 % level of probability. Whereas time (0.901**) came to be significant at 1 per cent level of probability. The analysis of results related to physiological cost of work revealed that in the age group of 21-30 years the independent variables such as family size (0.670*) and height (0.684*) was found to be significant at 5 per cent level of probability. While in the traditional method of maize shelling the posture inclination (-0.750*) was found to be negatively significant at 5% level of probability. While in the case of University developed maize sheller results shows that the independent variables like height (0.851**) was found to be significant at 1% level of probability. The analysis of results related to shelling efficiency of the machine revealed that in the under 21-30 years age group farm women the independent variables such as age (0.699*) was calculated to be significant at 5% level of probability. And posture Inclination (-0.699**) and moisture (-0.694*) was found to be negatively significant at 1% level of probability. While in University developed maize sheller results focused that the independent variable such as moisture (-0.667*) came to be significant at 5% level of probability. Manual shelling of maize is a time consuming and tedious operation. The heart rate responses showed that the activity is light. Though the activity is light but the women feel it as a maximum drudgery prone activity because of its monotony in performance, continuous sitting and performing it for a longer period of time. Hence Univ. developed maize sheller was found to be the good manual tools for the women performing maizs shelling as it saves not only the time but also gives high output and efficiency of farm women was found twice and save cardiac cost of worker per unit of output in comparison to the hand maize shelling. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810142685 | |
| dc.keywords | Family resource management, Extension education, Farm, Maize shelling, FAO, Census | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.pages | 104p. ; vi(Bibliography) | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar) | en_US |
| dc.sub | Family Resource Management | en_US |
| dc.theme | Efficiency and ergonomic evaluation of farm women for maize shelling | en_US |
| dc.these.type | M.Sc | en_US |
| dc.title | Efficiency and ergonomic evaluation of farm women for maize shelling | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |