Performance of serrated sickle and pedal operated paddy thresher for harvesting of paddy by hill farm women

Harvesting is perceived as a drudgery prone task in agriculture domain. Manual harvesting of paddy accumulates high physical strain and fatigue during peak seasonal period causing drudgery in farm women. The present study was planned for mechanized intervention of paddy harvesting and to compare and assess the economics and rate of drudgery among farm women in traditional and mechanized paddy harvesting practices using serrated sickle and pedal operated paddy thresher. Efficiency of paddy harvesting increased by using serrated sickle, as one farm women could harvest paddy with an output of 104.6 m² hr⁻¹ using serrated sickle and 87.8 m² hr⁻¹ through traditional/local sickle. 100% of the respondents reported serrated sickle as a comfortable tool for harvesting paddy with experience of less fatigue. Farm women were satisfied with pedal operated paddy thresher as it was easy to handle and to operate by them, was light in weight and could be easily carried from one terraced field to another. Most of the cultivated land in hilly area is under terraced farming and under the category of small and marginal farmers whose threshing requirements are less and can be met with this low cost thresher.