Ergonomical Comparison of Traditional and Improved (tubular) Maize Shelling Methods

Rajasthan has the largest area 10.62 lakh hectares under ýcultivation among all states with total production of 21 lakh tones (2007). Threshing is most important operation in Agriculture practices. two traditional methods of maize ýshelling namely shelling cob grain by hand, and beating by stick method and improved is tubular octagonal shape maize sheller, were carried for removing maize kernel from the cob. For ýergonomical evaluation Ten male agricultural subjects of 25–35 yr age group were randomly ýselected for the study. The mean OCR, ÄOCR, HR and ÄHR for octagonal maize sheller was lowest among all ýmethod of maize shelling and highest for beating by stick method. The energy expenditure ýrate was highest for beating by stick method (3.84 kcal/min) and lowest for octagonal maize ýsheller (1.52 kcal/min). Energy expenditure rate for shelling cob grain by hand and octagonal ýmaize shelling operation could be scaled in “Very light” category of work load. Whereas the beating by stick method could be scaled as in “Light” ýcategory of work load.ý