Cultivation of sugarcane is very labour and energy intensive. About 59, 192 MJ energy per hectare per crop cycle is required to raise sugarcane crop. Many of the field operations in sugarcane cultivation right from seed bed preparation, planting to harvesting, are to be performed mostly by human labours. To carry out these operations, approximately 550-600 man days are required. In the last two decades, the availability of male agricultural workers remained stagnant at around 140 million whereas availability of female workers increased from 70 million to about 100 million. Since the number of male agricultural labours is decreasing and the number of female agricultural labours is increasing, there is a need to develop hand tools, equipment and machineries suiting to women workers considering their anthropometric and strength data. Although many field operations in sugarcane cultivation are being performed by women labours but with the design of suitable hand tools, equipment and machineries they can work efficiently with dignity and less drudgery.
Women, sugarcane, mechanization, agricultural labours, Farm tools
