~ 5 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; SP4: 05-07 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2018; SP4: 05-07 Veena Shahi Programme Coordinator, KVK Muzaffarpur (Additional), Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India Brajesh Shahi Nodal Officer KVKs, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India Vikas Kumar Farm Manager, KVK Muzaffarpur (Additional), Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India KM Singh Director Extension Education, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India Correspondence Veena Shahi Programme Coordinator, KVK Muzaffarpur (Additional), Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India (Special Issue- 4) International Conference on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture (Thailand on 21-24 December, 2018) Performance evaluation and impact of small weeding tools for drudgery reduction of farm Women Veena Shahi, Brajesh Shahi, Vikas Kumar and KM Singh Abstract Weeding is a main drudgery prone activity mostly performed by farm women. To resolve this problem Krishi Vigyan Kendra conducted OFT programme in adopted villages of two districts of Bihar viz., Vaishali and Muzaffarpur during 2014-17 to assess the impact of three different weeding tools viz., Khurpi, RAU Wheel Hoe and Improved Grabar refined by KVK Sheohar for weeding in pulses and vegetable crops in line sowing. In total 225 respondents were selected for the study. The main aim of the study was to assess women friendly weeding tools to alleviate them from backbreaking drudgery, pains and ill health and enhance productivity and efficiency in the weeding operations. The women traditionally carried out weeding operation by using tool like Khurpi in squatting and bending position which decrease the work efficiency as time progresses. Results revealed that Improved Grabar was very good in terms of area covered (0.15 ha/day), weed mortality (90%) and low cost of weeding (Rs 6000/- per ha for two times weeding). The work output of Improved Grabar was near about four times as compared to traditional weeding tool i.e., Khurpi in terms of area covered, and the performance of RAU wheel was at par. Farm women adopted the Improved Grabar as it increased the efficiency of work, reduced the drudgery and helped in avoiding bending or squatting posture. It reduced the exertion and fatigue and women felt comfortable. There was high degree of adoption of this tool by the farm women in the adopted villages. Therefore, there is need to popularize this weeding tool in other areas. Keywords: Weeding, Wheel Hoe, Improved Grabar, Drudgery reduction Introduction A huge proportion of rural women involve in agriculture and allied fields. Migration of rural male to urban areas forces women to carry out the farm work which is previously done by male in addition to their household work. Women are doing 70% of major farm works like transplanting, weeding, threshing, cleaning, winnowing, grading, etc., and constitute 60% of the farming population (NSWF, 2014) [3] . Consequently, women are increasing their workload which causes significant physical, mental exhaustion and other health problems (Agarwal, 2007) [1] . It is true that at national level modernization of agriculture is taking place at a rapid pace, but women continue to perform farm operations which are full of drudgery while mechanized operations are performed by men (Singh, 2002) [6] . To get the full benefit of mechanization, it is very much necessary to use proper weeding tools, which will reduce drudgery and cost of cultivation. Weeding is one of the most important intercultural operation in crop production system and it is mostly done by women. Majority of the farm women do weed control using hand tools like sickle, khurpi and so on. Although, this method of weeding proves useful as it covers 98 % weed mortality but it demands more labour and is full of drudgery. During these activities they adopt bending and squatting body posture due to which their physiological workload increases and also, they face many types of musco-skeletal problems as a result of which the efficiency of women to work decreases to a great extent (Sharma, 1999) [5] . An average estimate of 45 mandays per hectare is the normal requirement of weeding by khurpi which amounts to Rs. 6750 per hectare depending upon weed infestation. Now a days various types of weeders are developed in India. These weeders are helpful for weeding in agriculture. Weeding by manually operated weeder increase the efficiency of workers and productivity of work.