Drudgery reduction, Farm women, Weeding tools

The study was conducted in Sinduri village of Shahdol district in Madhya Pradesh to evaluate rotary weeder’s ergonomic effectiveness in terms of energy requirement, subjective judgement of Work Related Body Discomfort (WRBD) and work performance in comparison with hand weeding.  Ergonomic results showed that the energy requirements for farm women were 16.0 and 11.04 kj/min for rotary weeder and hand weeding, respectively. The area covered by rotary weeder was 110 m2/hr as compare to 30m2/hr by hand weeding (nearly 4 times). The Overall Rated Perceived Exertion (ORPE) was used to express WRBD.  It was more in hand weeding due to continuous bending posture as against standing posture.