Abstract:
Hand Cranked Improved Chakki was evaluated at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa by rural men and women for products like dal and sattu from common pulses like green gram and Bengal gram. Machine performance indicators were output capacity, dehulling efficiency, milling efficiency, product recovery, and operational cost. The machine recorded the highest dal recovery (36.29 kg/h) at 5 mm clearance between upper and lower stones for green gram. The highest product recovery of Bengal gram was 40.53-44.40 kg/h for dal at 7.0 mm stone clearance and 3.27-3.56 kg/h for sattu at 1.5 mm clearance. Highest dehulling efficiency was 96.75 and 97.25 percent whereas highest dal recovery was 84 and 78 percent for Green gram and Bengal gram respectively. The machine registered 93.7 percent milling efficiency for the preparation of sattu. The cost of production was Rs20.49/kg for sattu, Rs1.98/kg for Green gram dal and Rs1.62/kg for Bengal gram dal. A common trend of increase in heartbeat, oxygen, and energy consumption rate was noticed with an increase in the age of the subjects irrespective of their gender. Dal preparation by machine was reported to be a comfortable task with the lowest work-rest time ratio varying between 5:1 and 3:1 for different subjects. For preparation of dal, Hand cranked improved chakki can very easily be adopted for cottage industry.