A study was conducted to design, develop and evaluate a low-cost willow wicker peeling machine for farmers and wicker craft industry of Jammu and Kashmir. The relevant physical characteristics of willow wicker were measured in terms of length, diameter and peel thickness to finalize the design values of individual working components of willow wicker machine. The machine comprised of hopper, peeling rollers, electric motor and discharging unit with overall dimension of 736 × 406 × 609 mm. The evaluation was carried out at three moisture content (13, 18 and 23% w.b), roller speeds (350, 700 and 1050 rpm) and wicker varieties (Salix triandra, Salix purpurea and Salix viminalis). The optimization of the data through design expert 10.0.1 revealed that operating the machine at 700 rpm with S. purpurea variety containing 13% (w.b) moisture content resulted in throughput capacity of 15 twigs/min, 83.85% peeling efficiency, 0.74% damage percentage, 0.064 man-min/twig labour requirement and 1.4 kJ/twig specific mechanical energy consumption. The cost economics showed that operating the machine requires 64.3 Rs h−1 with benefit–cost ratio of 2.35:1, breakeven point of 109,800 twigs and payback period of 640.44 hours. The comparative analysis showed the cost difference of Rs. 45 per hour between manual and mechanical peeling of willow wicker twigs. The weight of the machine was recorded as 53 kilograms. The study can be useful for wicker craft (keani keam) industry with huge employment and entrepreneurship generation potential.