Development and ergonomic assessment of women friendly stirrup hoe

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during Rabi season at ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region to evaluate stirrup hoe for intercultural operation in maize crop (Zea mays L.). The mean values of age, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), lean body mass (LBM), body surface area (BSA) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) of the subjects were 37.83 years, 51.67 kg, 152.50 cm, 22.20 kg/m2, 1.36 m2 and 1233.98 kcal/day, respectively. The mean of heart rate (HR), energy expenditure rate (EER) and oxygen consumption rate (OCR) during operation of stirrup hoe and khurpi were 113.08 and 97.13 beats/min, 9.26 and 6.72 kJ min-1 and 0.61 and 0.43 l/min. Weeding efficiency, plant injury and effective field capacity for stirrup hoe were 84.57%, 1.85% and 0.007 ha/hr whereas, for khurpi these were 96.95%, 0.74% and 0.002 ha/hr. The cost of operation of khurpi was 3.5 times costlier than stirrup hoe. The body part discomfort score (BPDS) of stirrup hoe was 26.8 whereas that of khurpi was 20.8. write advantage of stirrup hoe over khurpi.