Comparative ergonomic assessment of the male and female farm workers involved in rice cultivation

Abstract

In Indian agricultural farming, numerous drudgery prone activities are involved. Rice uprooting and transplanting are the most common example of these kinds of drudgery prone activities. Indian farmers are highly associated with these tasks and they perform a sequential work through manual efforts. In some areas of India, the improved method of uprooting and transplanting are being used but due to lack of awareness and information manual performance of these activities are much common. In the present investigation efforts have been made to compare the ergonomical parameters and the rate of human drudgery among male and female farm workers, during manual hand uprooting and transplanting with the improved method. For the ergonomical evaluation, twenty female and twenty male subjects were selected in the age group of 20- 55 years. Physiological parameters like HR, Blood Pressure, VO2 max and hand grip strength etc. were measured in different uprooting and transplanting operations. Segmental method of center of gravity was used to assess the deviation in CG in various working postures from neutral posture. It was observed that the center of gravity in various working postures was significantly deviated from neutral posture. The percentage reduction in grip strength was also observed to be lower in improved method compared to traditional method. From this study it has been recommended that improved method of uprooting and transplanting can significantly reduce the cost of drudgery among farmers and workers should avoid bad work postures as far as possible during their work for reducing postural stress.