Effectiveness of three manually operated weeding tools for farm women

In this study, khurpi, three tyne hoe and twin wheel hoe were evaluated in terms of performance, grade of work and comfort for gram crop with eight farm women (subjects). Weeding operation between the rows of gram crop was carried out with these tools during December-January, when the average ambient temperature and relative humidity were 18OC and 70%, respectively. The result of this investigation indicated that weeding with khurpi and twin wheel hoe could be graded as moderately heavy work, whereas weeding with 3-tyne hoe could be graded as heavy work. However, weeding with khurpi required less energy (9.39 kJ/min) than twin wheel hoe (9. 67 kJ/min). High energy expenditure (12.89 kJ/min) was observed in case of 3-tyne hoe. In terms of higher output, twin wheel hoe was observed best (179 man-h/ha) than 3-tyne hoe (302 man-h/ha) followed by khurpi (447 man-h/ha). Khurpi had shown highest weeding efficiency (92.1 to 94.8 %). Improved weeding tools such as twin wheel hoe and 3-tyne hoe reduced physical exertion and fatigue to make farm women comfortable.