Assessment of manual paddy transplanters for drudgery reduction of farm women in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha

Abstract

Transplanting of paddy is very tedious job mostly done by female workers. Manual hand transplanting consumes a lot of energy, time and fatigue, but the poor socio-economic condition of the farmers does not allow them to adopt power operated transplanter. Different manual transplanters have been developed by different research centres as 2 row, 3 row and 4 row paddy transplanter. Keeping this in view KVK, Mayurbhanj-1 has undertaken OFT on different transplanters in drudgery aspect and compared with manual transplanting. Seven female subjects were selected in the age group 17-45years in the farmer’s field. The mean value of age, weight, height, VO 2 max and body surface area was found to be 29.1 years, 50.7 kg, 152.5 cm, 1.68 l/min and 1.49 m 2 . The mean value of working heart rate was observed to be maximum of 130.6 beats/min in 3 row paddy transplanter followed by 126.7 beats/min in 2 row transplanter and 112.4 beats/min in local transplanting, respectively. The Oxygen consumption rate and relative cost of workload were observed to be maximum 1.01 l/min and 59.6 per cent in 3 row transplanter followed by 0.8 l/min and 57.8 per cent in 2 row transplanter and lowest in local practices, i.e. 0.5 l/min and 33.4 per cent. The field capacity was observed to be maximum 0.066 ha/day in 3 row transplanter followed by 0.03 and 0.054 ha/day in 2 row and local method of transplanting. The 3 row paddy transplanter was observed to be the best among all manual operated paddy transplanters.