Acceptability of Drudgery Reducing Hand Tools By Hill Farm Women

The study was conducted in Mundla village of Himachal Pradesh, India, to find out the acceptability of drudgery reducing hand tools (serrated sickle and tubular maize sheller) by hill farm women through action research. Demonstration-cum-lecture technique was used to introduce the tools to the respondents. Later on, these tools were handed over to them for use. Acceptability was studied in terms of three components i.e. knowledge gain, attitudinal change and symbolic adoption. The results revealed that majority of the respondents who had high gain in knowledge also possessed favourable attitude and symbolic adoption of both the tools. Thus, serrated sickle was found to be highly acceptable and tubular maize sheller as moderately acceptable by most of the respondents.