Need of Ergonomically Mechanized Interventions in Selected Farm Operations in Hills of Himachal Pradesh

摘要

Himachal Pradesh, a mountainous state of India where 71 % of the population depends on agriculture and horticulture, located on a sloping terrain of great Himalayas with snow clad mountains, rolling hills and valleys. Elevation of the state widely ranges from 350 m to 6,975 m above mean sea level. The major agricultural crops grown in the state are maize, paddy, wheat, potato, barley and horticultural crops are apple, citrus and nut & dry fruits. The state produced around 6 lakh tonnes of apple per annum, accounting for more than 80 percent of the total fruit production of the state. The undulating topography and small-sized terraced fields with high vertical intervals are the major constraints in adoption of modern agricultural & horticultural equipment prevalent in the plains. Small and marginal farmers dominate in the state having average land holdings 0.6 ha. At present power availability per hectare in the state is about 0.6 kW/ha out of which about 80 % came from animate power. The use of mechanical power source like tractor and power tiller is on limited scale in some plain and valley areas. Women participation in most of the farm operations is in the range of 50-80 %. The agricultural operations such as clod breaking, transplanting/sowing, weeding, harvesting, threshing/shelling, transportation all requires ergonomic intervention as these are mostly done by women with traditional tools. The horticultural operations such as land preparation, pit digging, pruning, plucking/harvesting and material handling are also being done manually with age old tools. These operations are resulting in lot of drudgery and increased cost of operation with very low productivity. So, there is an urgent need to study these operations ergonomi-cally so that the drudgery involved could be minimised with enhanced productivity by introducing/providing some improved tools or job aids.