Journal of Agricultural Engineering Vol. 44(3): July-September, 2007 Weeders for Drudgery Reduction of Women Farm Workers in India Suman Singh 1 , Puja Mathurand Madhu Rathore3 ABSTRACT Women playa vital role in agriculture. Rural women perform the entire household activities as well as they are employed in most arduous field operations. They are also engaged in post harvest and agro-processing activities. Weeding activity is predominantly carried out by women. Weeding activity is a strenuous one and the odd posture adopted by women while weeding may increase the heart rate out of proportion and lead to irreparable damage to the body. The present research assesses three types of weeders on ergonomic parameters with a view to promote health, efficiency and consequently improving the quality of work life. The study was conducted in vegetable fields on 30 farm women in the age group of25-40 years having normal blood pressure, body temperature and not suffering from any chronic illness. Ergonomic cost of weeding activity was calculated in terms of heart rate and energy expenditure. Body map technique was used to assess the musculo-skeletal discomfort ofthe workers. Results of the study revealed that ali three weeders proved efficient on ergonomic parameters; reduced average working heart rate, energy expenditure and output as compared to traditional tool. The posture improved while working with weeders as the bending and squatting posture employed while weeding with traditional method was replaced by standing posture. Women in agriculture make-up a substantial portion of rural population. They contribute 86% of work in intercultural activities in agriculture (Census of India, 2001). But still there are very few machines to ease women's manual labour. The machines available are not popularized and field-tested. Among all agricultural activities, weeding is predominant responsibility of farmwomen. Weeding is a process of removing unwanted plants by hand or with traditional tools such as kudali and khurpi. As reported by Nag and Dutt (1979), manual weeding is very predominant in India. Output of a worker with traditional hand tools is very low, i.e. upto 80 m 2 /h as against that of manual weeders i.e. 100 to 200 m2Jh. The manual weeders are operated in standing posture in pull-push or push mode. Women generally adopt squatting and bending posture while doing the activity and maintain it for long hours, which cause musculo-skeletal problems (Sharma, 1999). A study carried out on drudgery prone activities and women participation in paddy cultivation in Meghalaya inferred that the activity of weeding was expressed as difficult by all the women respondents (Singh et aI., 2001). It was estimated that the average time spent by women on the farm activities varied from 30 to 240 mini day depending on the farming operation being performed. The maximum average time spent by women in weeding was 252 min/day and it was performed for 15 days in a season. Behera and Swain (2005) reported that manually operated weeders have found acceptability due to their low cost. According to Nag and Dutt (1979), manually operated weeders need human effort to operate. The performance of the weeders as well as the operator vastly depends on the design of the weeders. A weeder if designed without taking into account the human capabilities will fail to deliver the desired results and will ultimately be rejected by the farmers. In the present study, three types of weeders viz. single wheel hoe, twin wheel hoe and grubber weeder (Fig. 1) were tested on ergonomic parameters in comparison to the traditional method of weeding. All the three weeders were made up of iron, light in weight and easy to operate. The long handle provided facilitates weeding by giving pressure by both hands as well as it also improves posture. Two sharp blades provided at the end of hand Ie in case of wheel hoe weeders increases the efficiency of the weeding. The grubber weeder had curved prongs at the end of handle. All three weeders were designed by CIAE, Bhopal. 'Senior Scientist & Associate Prof, J,.lSenior Research Fellow, A/CRP-Dept. of Family Resource Management, College of Home Science, MPUA T, Udaipur (sumanfrm@rediffmail.com, pm}3/@rediffmai/.com, madhuchauhan2@rediffmail.com)