New Paddy parboiling technique for drudgery reduction in farm women

Paddy parboiling is one of the tedious tasks done by female workers. Traditional method of paddy parboiling by using traditional utensil is fatigue, consumes time and output is also very low. Different manual paddy parboiling techniques have been developed by various research centres and use of paddy parboiling drum is one of them. Keeping this in view, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Mayurbhanj-1 had conducted demonstration on paddy parboiling drum for drudgery reduction of farm women and compared its performance with traditional method of parboiling by traditional utensils. Ten female subjects each were selected from two village in the age group 25-45yr. The mean value of working heart rate was observed to be 112 and 111 beats/min under traditional method of paddy parboiling whereas 102 and 103 beats/min in NRRI paddy parboiling drum in Kadalibadia and Gundihudi villages, respectively. The output was observed to be maximum 68 and 69kg/hr in NRRI paddy parboiling drum whereas 37 and 35.5kg/hr in traditional method of paddy parboiling for both the village in Mayurbhanj district. The energy expenditure in paddy parboiling by NRRI paddy parboiling drum was same for two villages i.e 8.61kj/min and traditional method was 5.43and 3.681 kJ/min respectively in two villages. Hence, from drudgery aspect and output point of view NRRI paddy parboiling drum was better than that of traditional method of paddy parboiling utensils.