Drudgery reduction of farm women through technology intervention

Farmers and farm women working in floriculture have great opportunities to develop an entrepreneurship but a lot of drudgery is associated with the harvesting of floriculture crops. Also, because of incorrect way of plucking, the life of these crops is shortened and these are not welcomed in the market as they don’t hold much economic value. After studying the existing plucking practices of rose and marigold flowers and the constraints faced by the harvesters during plucking of flowers, two improved women friendly tools i.e. finger guards, to protect the fingers from injuries while plucking these flowers, and flower harvest bag, for collection of plucked flowers, were developed and tested in the fields. The drudgery experience of farm women were studied while performing the flower plucking activity with traditional methods and improved tools. Results revealed that drudgery experiences of the respondents related to all the parameters reduced significantly when flower harvesting was done wearing finger guards and using flower harvesting bag, major ones being difficulty perception and workload perception.