Vol. 10, Special Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Atul Kumar Shrivastava, Shalini Chaturvedi, Prabhat Kumar Guru and Falguni Rathore

Abstract:
Kodo and little millet are an important crop of Central India (Madhya Pradesh) mainly grown in arid and semi-arid regions. A survey was conducted on identification and documentation of the traditional method of threshing method of millet and for the traditional methods, ergonomical study was conducted to see its effect on human health. Physical efforts required for the operation of threshing with exposure to varying temperature, relative humidity, nature of the job causes a lot of stress on the operator resulting in physiological and psychological fatigue after the daylong operation. Psychophysical measurement to determine overall discomfort and body part discomfort. The mean heart rate of all subjects was 102.46 beats/min and mean oxygen consumption was 0.70 l/min respectively. The mean value of overall discomfort was 8.2 with a 9.2 rating of the arm, 9.1 for shoulder, 8 for back, 8 for waist and 7.5 for the leg. The method adopted for threshing is hand beating and the result observed with excellent threshing efficiency 98.05% with 1.95% of unthreshed grain and 6.8 kg/h output capacity. To avoid excessive postural discomfort the minimum duration of rest pauses should be 20 min. Threshing of millet by using traditional methods can be categorized into the 'moderate' work (Astrand and Rodahl (1986).