Physiological Workload of Women Workers in the Operation of Manual Rice Transplanters

Abstract

Manual transplanting of rice seedlings in puddled field is a widely accepted cultivation practice in India and one of the labor-intensive operations in agriculture. It also involves enormous drudgery, as women workers, who perform most of the operation in India, have to work in bending posture in sweltering weather. To ease the transplanting work, research organizations have developed various types of manually operated rice transplanters. Of these, two-row and four-row manual rice transplanters of the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) have been ergonomically evaluated at the Subcentre of National Research Centre for Women in Agriculture (presently Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture), Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE), Bhopal, for assessing their suitability for use by farm women and for determining the physiological workload with women workers. Each women worker operated the equipment for 30 minutes. The mean heart rate of women workers during transplanting with two-row and four-row manual rice transplanters was 138 beats/min and 148 beats/min, respectively. The higher values of work pulse and recovery heart rate suggested for providing adequate rest pause to the women workers. Two women workers may be engaged in shifts for day-long work with the equipment. The area covered was found to be 103.4 m2/h and 234.4 m2/h at a speed of 0.27 km/h and 0.3 km/h with two-row and four-row rice transplanters, respectively. Both the rice transplanters could reduce drudgery by 36.1 and 69.8 percent in terms of physiological cost/ha as compared to traditional practice. On a per hectare basis, four-row rice transplanters were found to be more energy effi cient (52.7 percent) as compared to two-row rice transplanters. The equipment avoided the bending posture that is adopted during traditional method. Reducing the load of nursery up to half of its weight could reduce the pulling force up to some extent. Women workers can operate the equipment for rice transplanting.