Assessment of Drudgery Load of Farm Workers Involved in Flower Harvesting Activity and Technology Intervention

Abstract

Field survey was conducted to know the existing flower plucking practices followed by farm workers & constrains faced by them during plucking and collecting of loose roses, cut roses, gaillardia & marigold flowers. Total sample of 120 farm workers (Male & Female) intensively involved in flower plucking of cut & loose roses, gaillardia & marigold were purposively selected as respondents. Parameters used to assess the drudgery experiences were rated perceived exertion, work related drudgery experience Physical load,Postural load; time load, repetitive strain load, physiological load and MSD load. Drudgery load and index were calculated for harvesting activity performed in each selected flower farm. The design of the bags and material to be used was finalized after conducting field trial and collecting feedback of the selected workers. Percentage change in pace of work (kg/h/worker) in improved method was highest (33.3 %) in case of harvesting cut roses, followed by 16.66 percent in case of loose roses & 14.28 percent in case of harvesting gaillardia . Time load in flower harvesting was decreased due to use of developed customized harvesting bags for all the selected flowers such as cut roses (25 %), loose roses (9 to 14 %), gaillardia (12 to 16 %) & marigold (22 to 24 %). Rated perceived exertion (RPE) was highly significantly decreased by 25 to 33 percent in improved method while performing flower harvesting in case of all the three selected flowers.