International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
RS Negi, Uttam K, Tripathi and KS Shukla

abstract
An on farm trial was conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Chitrakoot to assess the use of spiral grain separator for drudgery reduction and improving the work efficiency of farm women. Twenty six farm women were selected from nearby village to assess the impact of improved tool over conventional practice. The acceptability of spiral grain separator by the farm women was collected by using five point scales starting from agree to disagree. The parameters viz number of farm women, time and cost involved in cleaning of grains were studied to compare the performance of spiral grain separator with existing method. The result showed that the spiral grain separator is the best as compared to traditional method as on an average of 2.5 q of grains are cleaned per hour with spiral grain separator by two farm women as compared to 0.29 q of grains cleaned per hour by hand cleaning with sieves/strainer. Manual grain cleaning is laborious, tedious and time consuming. The time taken by spiral grain separator to clean the different grains viz., pigeon pea, blackgram, greengram, chickpea and lentil was on an average 25.16 minutes as compared 3.49 hrs in manual cleaning. The cost of cleaning one quintal of grain has been found to be significantly reduced (Rs 31.25/ quintal) as compared to Rupees 261.75 per quintal in manual method. On an average 3.07 hrs time was saved by cleaning and grading of one quintal seeds by spiral grain separator.