Gender-Specific Agricultural Tool for Enhanced Productivity and Human Health

Abstract

AbstractThe essentiality of women labour is increasing in agriculture due to migration of men towards urban livelihood and occupations. Women contribute 50% in production and their involvement in agricultural activities varies from region to region. In Tamil Nadu presently farm women perform various agricultural activities from land preparation to harvesting and marketing. A study was conducted in four districts of Tamil Nadu, namely, Madurai, Theni, Viruthunagar and Trichy. A total of 368 farm women were randomly selected for the study, and information regarding activities performed by them, need for tools and problems faced by them were recorded. According to the study, farm women are majorly involved in sowing/transplanting, weeding and harvesting activities. Farm women reported that they are in need of a tool to substitute the manual transplanting method. A handheld seedling transplanter was designed for transplanting vegetable seedlings in a standing posture. Field trials were conducted and heart rate was analysed for 12 farm women while transplanting using the tool. The average heart rate of farm women while transplanting by the conventional method was 117 bpm and it reduced to 107 bpm while using the seedling transplanter tool. There was a significant difference in the average working heart rate of farm women while transplanting seedlings using the tool. The energy expenditure of women while transplanting using the tool was 7.7 kJ/min, while the conventional method of transplanting the energy expenditure was 9.89 kJ/min. The energy expenditure has been reduced significantly (P < 0.01) by the use of a handheld seedling transplanter. The number of seedlings transplanted per minute using the tool was 21, which is significantly higher than the conventional method (17). This showed that the designed tool has resulted in the reduction of physiological loss, thereby it increases the productivity of farm women. The application of ergonomics in agriculture and designing of appropriate tools for task and gender-specific activities will lead to a healthy farming community.KeywordsAgricultureWomenToolsTransplantingProductivity