Ergonomic Evaluation of Maize Cultivation under Hilly Condition

In the northeastern region, Maize is the second largest cereal crop. Its productivity is very low due to practicing traditional cultivation method with indigenous tools and implements having low output and involving more drudgery. Ergonomical evaluation of sowing of maize crop by the traditional (local) method and with seed drill was carried out to evaluate the energy expenditure, cardiovascular load and cardio-respiratory stress in its use. The average heartbeat during 6^th and 15^th minute was recorded for the calculation. It was observed that the working heart rate was 146.25 ± 9.64 beats/min during sowing by seed drill. In local method, the working heart rate was 111 ± 6.27 beats/min. Average increase in heart rate over rest was 32.75 ± 4.57 and 69.75 ± 13.52 beats/min in local method and by the seed drill, respectively. The energy expenditure rate by the local method and using seed drill were 11.15 ± 1.90 and 21.19 ± 2.42kJ/min, respectively. The relative cost (% VO₂ max) of local and seed drill method was 27.8 ± 0.048 and 53.05 ± 0.06%, respectively. The mean output in local method was 0.065 kg/1000 beats where as under sowing with seed drill was 0.309 kg/1000 beats. An average of 375% increase inproductivity over local method was achieved by using maize seed drill. Thus seed drill was superior over traditional method for sowing maize hills in respect of physiological cost of operation.