Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Weeding is the most important farm operations in crop production system. It is one of the most drudgery prone operation performed by the farm women. Majority of the farm women do weed control using hand tools like sickle or khurpi in squatting and bending position which decreases the work efficiency and involves a lot of drudgery and time. The main purpose of the present study is to demonstrate weeding implements (Single Wheel Hoe and Twin Wheel Hoe) for weeding in soybean crop with the objective to reduce drudgery with muscular stress and fatigue. Twenty five farm women were selected randomly from different villages of Rajgarh district for the study. The study measured the changes in heart rate (HR), area covered during weeding and cardiac cost of work (CCW) of the subjects in traditional methods of weeding (squatting and using a sickle or khurpi) vis-a-vis weeding implements (Single Wheel Hoe and Twin Wheel Hoe). It is evident from the results of the demonstration that usage of weeding implements led to significant (p<0.05). Drudgery reduction was recorded as 52 and 58 per cent for single wheel hoe and twin wheel hoe, respectively. The results underscored the importance of weeding implements usage by farm women for intercultural operations leading to reduced exhaustion and fatigue.