Wheat harvesting is one of the important farm activity predominantly performed by rural women in Haryana. During harvesting season, she spends nearly 8-9 hours daily to perform the activity. The aim of present study was to evaluate the performance of improved sickles over existing sickle in terms of output and reduced drudgery. Experiment was conducted on 20 rural women aging 20-45 years of age with four sickles comprising one conventional sickle (S0) and three improved sickles viz. S1, S2 and S3. S0 sickle was the heaviest measuring 234 gm followed by S2 (217 gm) and S3 (198 gm). S1 sickle was the lightest in weight (186 gm). Blades of all the improved sickles were made up of high carbon steel except for local sickle that was made up of iron. Regarding physical fitness index, two-fifth of the respondents had high average physical index and good physical fitness index (40%). Output was found maximum for S2 sickle (64.9 kg.). S2 sickle resulted 4.8 percent more output over conventional sickle resulting 16.4 percent increase in area covered. Average working heart rate (107.5 beats/min) and corresponding energy expenditure (8.37 kj/min) was found minimum for S2 sickle. Total cardiac cost of work for all the sickles ranged from 1020 beats to1283 beats. Average TCCW for S0 sickle was 1283.5 beats. Reduction in TCCW with all sickles over S0 sickle was maximum for S2 sickle (20.5%) followed by S1 sickle (20.4%). S2 sickle resulted minimum grip fatigue after the activity (3.8 percent). Farmwomen adopted maximum of squatting posture (7 times) followed by bending posture (4 times). Regarding musculo-skeletal problems, maximum reduction in pain was reported in thighs (43.3%) followed by wrist joint (42.3%), shoulder joint (41.8%), feet (33.5%) and neck (30%).
objectives
- To study the physical characteristics of the women involved in wheat harvesting.
- To assess the physiological and biomechanical workload of the women using existing and improved sickles.
METHODOLOGY
The study was carried out in the month of April-May on 20 women subjects for half an hou.r Wheat harvesting activity was carried on by the selected subjects with one conventional (So) and three improved sickles viz., falcon plastic handle (S1), falcon wooden handle (S2) and naveen sickle (S3). To maintain uniformity in the experimental data, subject having normal basic physiological parameters. The experiment was started at 8.00 a.m. in wheat fields. Harvesting of wheat was done for 30 minutes with each sickle. Output parameters and other ergonomic parameters were measured.
Assessment of Ergonomic stress
Physiological Stress. Heart rate is an indicator of cardiac stress due to physical workload. Heart rate was recorded after every minute for five minutes during experiment using polar heart rate monitor. From the average value of heart rate, energy expenditure, total cardiac cost of work (TCCW) and physiological cost of work (PCW) for wheat harvesting was calculated with the help of formulae given by Varghese et al. (1995) as below:
Energy expenditure (KJ/min.) =0.159xAHR – 8.72
TCCW = Cardiac Cost of Work (CCW) + Cardiac Cost of Recovery (CCR)
CCW = Average Heart rate (AHR) x Duration of Activity
AHR = Average Working Heart Rate – Average Resting Heart Rate
CCR = (Average recovery heart rate–Average resting heart rate) x Duration of Activity
PCW = TCCW/Total Time of Activity
Biomechanical Stress. Biomechanical stress includes grip fatigue and postural stress.
Grip fatigue: Grip dynamometer was used to measure grip strength at rest (Sr) and after the work (Sw) separately for the right and left hand. Grip fatigue was calculated as under:
Grip fatigue (%) = Sr – Sw/Sr x 100
Musculo-skeletal Problems. A human body map was used to identify incidences of musculo-skeletal problems in different parts of the body. Five-point scale ranging from very severe pain (5) to very mild pain (1) was used to quantify the stress on muscles used in work and then mean scores were calculated.
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