Current Science

Abhijit Khadatkar ¹, L. P. Gite ¹, V. K. Gupta ²

Affiliations
1 Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal 462 038, IN
2 Regional Centre for Makhana, Darbhanga 846 005, IN

Abstract

Makhana (Euryale ferox salisb.) is a seed produced from an aquatic crop, which normally grows in water bodies like ponds. In the traditional way of harvesting, a worker goes deep into the pond, lies down, holds his breath and drags the mud with both hands towards a bamboo pole called 'kaara', which is later sieved using a bamboo screen called 'ganjaa'. During this operation mud enters into the ears, eyes, nose and mouth of the worker. Also, the workers are affected by skinrelated diseases due to unhygienic working environment. Therefore, an intervention was made and an improved system was developed which consists of a floating platform providing support to a 10 l cylinder having compressed air, 10 m hose pipe with regulator and a mini diving kit having suit with cap, mask and content guage. A comparative study was conducted.

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Abhijit Khadatkar ¹, C. R. Mehta ¹, L. P. Gite ¹, B. S. Narwariya ¹, Anup Kumar ²

Affiliations
1 ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal 462 038, IN
2 Peoples College of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bhopal 462 038, IN

Abstract

Noise is an occupational hazard affecting the health and safety of the tractor drivers. The hearing impairment of Indian tractor drivers has been assessed in the present study. Sixty healthy male subjects of similar age, height and weight were selected and divided into two groups of 30 subjects each, viz. tractor drivers with more than 10 years of driving experience and office workers as control. Audiometric testing of both the ears of the selected subjects was conducted at ten frequencies, i.e. 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 kHz. It was observed that the hearing threshold levels of office workers at measured test frequencies were less than 25 dB(A) and exceeded 25 dB(A) for tractor drivers to cause hearing handicap. Statistical analysis of the data indicated significant difference in the audiometric profile of tractor drivers compared to the office workers. The estimated average excess risk of hearing impairment of the subjects was calculated from audiometric data using five standard models; it was 0.2% and 7.1% for office workers and tractor drivers respectively. Thus it can be concluded that tractor driving significantly increased the hearing threshold levels of the drivers compared to office workers.

Keywords

Audiometry, Hearing Impairment, Noise, Office Workers, Tractor Drivers.

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Abhijit Khadatkar ¹, S. M. Mathur ², B. B. Gaikwad ³

Affiliations
1 ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal 462 038, IN
2 College of Technology and Engineering, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur 313 001, IN
3 ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati 413 115, IN

Abstract

Vegetable transplanting is a labourious and timeconsuming field operation when performed manually. The semi-automatic vegetable transplanters are cumbersome to operate due to limitations on manual feeding rates of seedlings which vary with respect to work duration and skill of the operator. Automation in the field of vegetable transplanters has provided opportunities for savings in labour and time required for transplanting operation in open field and controlled environmental structures, i.e. shade nets or polyhouse. The advent and recent advances in transplanting technologies suggest ample scope of working on automated seedling pickup and drop mechanisms using robotics. Use of seedling pickup mechanism in automatic transplanters can repeatedly extract single seedling automatically from the seedling pro-tray with the help of a pair of pins or forks and drop at predefined location. In general, these systems comprise either a machine vision system or end-effector mechanism for extracting the seedling; gripper and a manipulator; indexing drum-type seedling removal device with ejector; or a pick-up system, feeding system and a planting system. Such automated systems have helped ease the transplanting operation and efficient planting of seedlings by maintaining the accuracy, precision and effectiveness in planting seedlings with minimum human intervention. This study highlights the research gaps and developments in smart transplanting technologies used in the field of vegetable cultivation.

Keywords

Agriculture, Automation, Smart Farming, Vegetable Transplanting.

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