1Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Datia, R. V. S. K. V. V., Gwalior, M.P.
Online published on 23 December, 2015.
Groundnut shelling is an arduous job carried out exclusively by the farm women. The present study was conducted to understand the effects of using a groundnut decorticator for groundnut shelling by the farm women towards mitigation of drudgery. Drudgery was assessed by registering the average change in working heart rate (?AWHR), b.min-1, energy expenditure, kJ.min-1, and cardiac cost, b.kg-1. The perfomance of the decorticator was calculated in terms of the amount of groundnuts shelled, kg.hr 1. The statistical significance of the study was inferred by the t-test for difference of means. The results of the study reflected that, using groundnut decorticator lead to a significant (at 5% level of significance) decrease in CCW, while the throughput registered a significant (at 5% level of significance) increase. Also, the drudgery reduction was about 57.87%. The results underscore the benefits of using groundnut decorticator by farm women for shelling purposes.
