Ergonomic evaluation of self-propelled planter for NEH region

Abstract

In Indian agriculture, seed placement is one of crucial operations as it affects seed germination, growth and the productivity. Further, in narrow terraces of North Eastern Hilly Region use of tractor operated planters and other conventional planter is not feasible. In addition, commercially available planters use mechanical metering which has many limitations including, skidding of the wheel, non-uniform seed rate, wastage of the seed and higher maintenance cost. Therefore, a lightweight self-propelled planter is required for precise seed placement with less drudgery in terraced terrain with a vertical interval more than 1 m. Anthropometric dimensions of Sikkim workers were considered for designing important parts of the self-propelled planter. The developed self-propelled planter was evaluated as per an ergonomic consideration for performance parameters. The optimum values of different dependent variables were observed when planter was operated with subject’s age of 25 years and at 2 cm depth of operation. The values of heart rate, oxygen consumption rate, energy expenditure rate, grip fatigue, overall discomfort rating, and body part discomfort rating were 108 bpm, 550 ml.min-1 , 17.50 kJ.min-1 , 5.32%, 2 and 30 respectively. When the planter was operated with optimum values of independent parameters, namely subjects age and depth of operation. HR, OCR, EER, GF, ODR and BPDR for broadcasting were 46.58, 22.70, 25.55, 35.52, 20.0 and 17.50% lesser than the values for labors while using the planter. The extra effort had helped the farmers to save the cost of the planting by 49.83%. In addition, precision seed placement could reduce seed rate and get higher yield.