Ergonomics assessment of risk factors among farm workers in vegetable production system
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Date
2022-08
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, District Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. PIN - 263145
Abstract
India is the second-largest vegetable-producing country. Vegetable-producing operations are extremely labor intensive; throughout the activities, farm workers often adopt various postures such as bending, twisting, semi-bending, standing and sitting. which are directly associated with drudgery and occupational health problems. The present study was designed with the following objectives: to study the demographic and activity profile of farm workers engaged in a vegetable production system, postural analysis of farm workers involved in a vegetable production system, to identify the work-related health hazards experienced by the farmworkers during different types of work activity and to suggest the importance of correct postural techniques of doing work. The aim of integrating ergonomics with farm workers involved in the vegetable production system is to solve the issues and to increase worker productivity and efficiency. The present study was carried out in the Vegetable Research Center, Pantnagar which is situated in the premises of GBPUAT, Pantnagar at Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand. The cent percent population (i.e., 100 percent) of respondents were selected for descriptive and subjective data on different activities from land preparation to harvesting of vegetable production system. The three crops were selected for the study i.e., tomato (Solanaceae family), broccoli (Brassicaceae family), and garlic (Amaryllidaceae family) vegetable production system. The descriptive and subjective data was collected with the help of an interview schedule and Body Part Discomfort (BPD) scale. ERGO Fellow software (version 2.0) were used to analysed data of RULA, REBA, and OWAS method to identify the postural discomfort among the farm workers those who were involved in vegetable production system. Whereas SPSS (version 26.0) software was used for analysis of statistical data correlation, and multiple linear regression at 5 percent level of significance (2-tailed test). The results revealed that majority of farm workers experienced very severe discomfort during harvesting, transplanting and weeding operations in vegetable production system. Postural discomfort was found to be more during land preparation, nursery preparation and transplanting operations as farm workers adopted squatting and bending postures with the repetitive movement of the hands. The result of RULA method showed that the majority of respondents were found to be from category third, which indicates that further investigation and changes are required soon whereas in REBA method respondents were found from fourth category, which indicate high risk and implement change in their working posture during land preparation, nursery preparation, sowing, transplanting, irrigation and harvesting operations of vegetable production system. Long working hours, uncomfortable body postures, repeated effort and physical stress all contribute to musculoskeletal discomforts in the vegetable-producing system. To create awareness among the respondents’ various aids were prepared such as chart, poster, short film and pamphlet to impart knowledge regarding correct postural techniques during their working hours in vegetable production system which will help farm workers to reduce drudgery and provide an appropriate working environment.