TAWANG, 10 Aug: Almora (Uttarakhand)-based Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan (VPKA), in collaboration with the Tawang KVK, organised a ‘demonstration and distribution of maize sheller’ programme at the latter’s premises here on Saturday.
VPKAS principal scientist Dr RK Khulbe briefed the participants on the initiatives taken by the VPKAS, in collaboration with the Tawang KVK, for making agriculture more profitable for the farmers in the district, specifically mentioning “the high-yielding quality protein maize hybrids and VL maize sheller developed by the VPKAS.”
Explaining the advantages of the VL maize sheller, VPKAS senior scientist Dr Manoj Kumar informed that “the traditional method of manual shelling, which involves removal of grains from maize cobs by hand, is a tedious and time-consuming task and poses long-term health hazards to the workers – mainly women – involved in this work.”
The practical functioning of the VL maize sheller was demonstrated to the farmers. They were also sensitized to the precautions to be taken while using the sheller.
Six VL maize shellers were distributed to the 16 participating farmers from Bleting, Buri, Khinmey and Kitpi villages for community use.
The VL maize sheller has been developed by the VPKAS for efficient shelling of maize, and is suitable for small and hill farmers. It weighs 54 kgs and can be easily ported by two persons, and runs on a 0.5 HP single-phase motor.
Its threshing capacity is 200-250 kg/hr and threshing efficiency is 95-98 per cent. It causes minimum breakage of grains and cobwood. The unbroken cobwood is used as firewood in many areas.
Earlier, KVK subject matter specialist CK Singh highlighted “the importance of maize in the food basket of Tawang farmers,” and emphasised the need to improve maize productivity in the district. (DIPRO)
