Ergonomic Evaluation of Hand Operated Maize Sheller for Reducing Drudgery of Farm Women in Bihar

Maize shelling is one of the tedious and time-consuming agricultural operations. To reduce the drudgery of farm women involved in maize shelling, a hand-held octagonal maize sheller (OMS) tool was introduced. The OMS tool was evaluated for its impact on human health and shelling efficiency. An ergonomic study of the OMS tool was carried out with farm women as subjects for evaluation. Various ergonomic and technical performance parameters were assessed for two types of shelling viz. hand shelling and shelling using OMS tool. The results revealed that the OMS tool and hand shelling recorded an output of 23.71 and 8.87 kg/h, respectively. The cardiac cost per unit of output worked out was 69.73 and 287.09 beats/kg for OMS tool and hand shelling, respectively. Compared to hand shelling, the OMS tool reduced drudgery by 75.71%. Overall discomfort rating was 1.58 and 2.12 while the body part discomfort score was 21.27 and 30.41 for OMS tool and hand shelling, respectively. Adoption of OMS tool reduced the physical stress as very small percentage of subjects (less than 40%) reported about the body pain. In view of increased shelling efficiency and reduced physical pain, the OMS tool was found more suitable and is recommended for maize shelling.