Orissa Diary (June 28, 2011) | Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture (ICAR), Bhubaneswar has developed a gender friendly hand operated maize dehusker-sheller that can separate grain from dried un-dehusked maize cobs, informed its Director, Dr. Krishn Srinath.
The equipment has come as a great relief to the maize producers and processors who want grains from stalked dried dehusked cobs. The available shellers are not capable of handling un-dehusked maize cobs. The equipment, that requires dried cobs to be fed one by one at the interval of 3-4 seconds, can be operated by both men and women. It has very high dehusking and shelling efficiency, and can handle about 90 kg of dehusked cobs per hour.