An Ergonomic Study on Human Drudgery and Musculoskeletal Disorders by Rice Transplanting

Ojha, Pragya; Kwatra, Seema

doi:10.1080/09737189.2012.11885351

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…In wheat and paddy production systems, paddy cultivation practices were found to be more drudgery prone, corresponding to a high energy expenditure rate and other circulatory stress corresponding to research opinion in line with the present study to adopt bending and sitting posture during manual uprooting and transplanting (Nawi et al, 2012;Ojha and Kwatra, 2012;Badodiya et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Ergonomics assessment of drudgery in rice-wheat production system in India: a case study of women farmers

Joshi,

Mahra,

Jethi

et al. 2024

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Farm women are often forced to work in extremely hazardous conditions due to their limited access to improved agricultural technologies. This circumstance makes agricultural work physically demanding, requiring significant physiological effort and the maintenance of good posture. It is also very exhausting, time-consuming, and stressful. The study was designed to evaluate and quantify the drudgery involved in the rice-wheat production system for rural women. Three replications of a 10-min work cycle without a break were used to assess the physiological and postural demands of various farm tasks on the female workers. Observations were recorded on farm women workers who were in normal health, without any major illness, and regularly involved in farm operations. In the attempt to obtain and analyze the prioritized drudgery experiences in crop production activities through drudgery assessment and reduction, various ergonomically sound farm tools and implements were provided for crop cultivation and intercultural operations. Data indicating musculoskeletal disorders were analyzed by ergonomics assessment of postural and biomechanical assessments using the Human Physical Drudgery Index (HPDI), resulting in the maximum drudgery reflecting very high risk in transplanting (48.4%), followed by threshing (47.2%), load carrying (46.00%), and harvesting (45.14%). For physiological ergonomics quantifications, the most drudgery-prone activities in the rice-wheat production system, i.e., transplanting, harvesting, threshing & post-harvest, and load carrying, were evaluated, and it was found that drudgery is caused by different activities with reflects working energy expenditure rate ranging from ~7.00 to 12.00 (kJ/min) and total cardiac cost of work (TCCW) ~ 331.00 to 524.00. Multivariate regression analysis was employed to drive relationships between energy expenditure rate (dependent variable) and other independent variables, such as age, body mass index (BMI), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), calf circumference (CC), skinfold measurements, body density (D), % body fat, fat mass, and fat-free mass (kg). It was found that energy expenditure rate during various crop production practices is positively correlated with independent variables (R = 0.721, R2 = 0.520, Adjusted R2 = 0.518, Standard Error of Estimate = 0.0324, Durbin-Watson = 1.531). It was found that with higher physiological parameters, the corresponding energy expenditure is maximized relating to the drudgery in respective agricultural activities. The present study addressed the magnitude of drudgery for women farmers in the rice-wheat production system and its mitigation strategy.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Ergonomics assessment of drudgery in rice-wheat production system in India: a case study of women farmers

Joshi,

Mahra,

Jethi

et al. 2024

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…Clutching was more effective on this muscle in decreasing the pain threshold. However, based on the previous studies, this muscle when bending forward (flexion) and the rest did not been relaxed [32], and in some activities that can be done either manually by the farmers, the waist area have been reported as the common musculoskeletal disorders [33]. The second muscle that is affected by clutching with more decrease in the pain threshold is the Gastrocnemius muscle (see Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Ergonomic assessment of drivers in MF285 and MF399 tractors during clutching using algometer

Fallahi

Abbaspour‐Fard

Azhari

et al. 2016

Information Processing in Agriculture

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Ergonomic Muscle Operator Tractor A B S T R A C T Tractor as one of the most widely used agricultural machinery should be considered from different aspects. The frequent application of clutch and brake pedals and also the steering wheel within farms, along with the unfavorable working conditions, cause negative effects on the occupational health of the tractor drivers. Thus, in this research, the imposed forces on three engaged muscles including: Gastrocnemius, Trapezius and Quadrate's lumborum of the tractor drivers during clutching have been studied. In this regard, algometer device was used to determine the applied forces on selective muscles of drivers during clutching of MF285 and MF399 tractors. The experiments were performed employing sample of 30 drivers and were conducted on two Iranian frequently used tractors including: MF285 and MF399 models.The results showed that the clutching forces for MF285 and MF399 tractors were 340 N and 290 N, respectively. The knee angle of the drivers of the two tractors was statistically different at the one percent level of significance. The reduction of pain threshold after 30 and 60 s clutching and also 60 s rest after clutching in MF285 tractor, for all three muscles, were more than those of MF399 tractor. The impact of clutching on the average decreases of pain threshold, for all drivers and all clutching periods, during and after clutching, in the Quadratus lumborum muscle was more than the other two muscles, in both tractors. In order to reduce the clutching force for MF285 tractor some modifications is suggested. In this regard the force transfer joint between the pedal and the clutch release linkage may be replaced with one made of cast iron.

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“…Currently, most of the paddy crop in most south Asian countries is transplanted manually, requiring around 200–300 man‐h ha −1 (Dixit, 2010; Manes et al, 2013), which is approximately 25% of the total labor requirement of paddy cultivation (Haider, 2019; Karunanithi & Tajuddin, 2003; Tamanna et al, 2018). In addition, the labors have to change their posture frequently and adopt bending and sitting postures during transplanting resulting in high heart and energy expenditure rate, neck pain, shoulder pain, upper‐lower back pain, and thigh pain (Dixit et al, 2014; Ojha & Kwatra, 2012; Yadav et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization and evaluation of machine–field parameters of remotely controlled two‐wheel paddy transplanter

Lohan

Narang

Javed

et al. 2022

Journal of Field Robotics

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Amongst the various types of paddy transplanters; walk-behind-type transplanters are more economically viable as compared with riding-type paddy transplanters. But, it requires more human involvement because the operator has to walk behind the two-wheel walk-behind-type paddy transplanter in puddled field conditions up to about 10-22 km during a day-long period under high temperature and humid conditions. To reduce the workload of the operator, a wireless remote-controlled system has been developed to control the various hand control levers of walkbehind-type paddy transplanter through electric linear actuators and electronic control unit. The present study emphasizes the performance evaluation of the remote control system and optimizes the machine-field parameters. Response surface methodology was used with three levels of soil puddling settlement period (4, 26, and 48 h), three forward speeds (1.40, 1.85, and 2.30 km h −1 ) in two types of soils (light-textured and medium-textured). The response factors, that is, the effective field capacity (EFC) and field efficiency (FE) were found affected by forwarding speed, soil type, and soil puddling settlement period, but no significant effect was observed at the interaction level. The optimal value of soil puddling settlement period was 26 h at a forward speed of 2.0 km h −1 for light-textured soil, whereas for medium-textured soil, it was 30 h at 1.82 km h −1 . A total saving of up to 18.18% labor requirement was observed as required in the existing walk-behindtype paddy transplanter. The increase in EFC was observed up to 20%, resulting the net benefit per unit area and per year has been increased up to 6.59% and 15.86%, respectively. The overall results of the field evaluation showed that the remotecontrolled system for the two-wheel paddy transplanter would be feasible at optimized field and machine parameters.

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An Ergonomic Study on Human Drudgery and Musculoskeletal Disorders by Rice Transplanting

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Ergonomics assessment of drudgery in rice-wheat production system in India: a case study of women farmers

Ergonomics assessment of drudgery in rice-wheat production system in India: a case study of women farmers

Ergonomic assessment of drivers in MF285 and MF399 tractors during clutching using algometer

Optimization and evaluation of machine–field parameters of remotely controlled two‐wheel paddy transplanter

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