Affiliations: [a] Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India
| [b] College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| [c] ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
| [d] Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Abhijit Khadatkar, ICAR-Cent-ral Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. E-mail: abhijitnu2@gmail.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Ragi (Eleusine Coracana) is a major food crop for the tribal population of India. OBJECTIVE: This study emphasizes the need to consider ergonomics aspects in the design and development of a pedal operated ragi thresher (PORT) for tribal people, and assesses the drudgery as well as ergonomic evaluation of a developed thresher against the conventional practice. METHODS: Thirty subjects (male = 15 and female = 15) from the tribal region were evaluated ergonomically. The physiological responses of the subjects were studied and their performance was compared. RESULTS: The results revealed that the working heart rate, oxygen consumption rate and overall discomfort rating were significantly higher in case of traditional threshing as compared to those in case of PORT. Postural analysis identified the traditional method as the most fatigue one as the person has to lift the hand above shoulder level repeatedly and has to sit in a squatting posture for long period. CONCLUSION: The drudgery and occupational hazards to public health involved in the traditional method of threshing was reduced by using the PORT. Furthermore, the traditional method involved continuous stressed actions across the entire body, whereas the PORT involved only the lower limbs.
Keywords: Ergonomics, threshing, working heart rate, oxygen consumption rate, energy expenditure rate, occupational hazards, public health, traditional
DOI: 10.3233/WOR-205252
Journal: Work, vol. 70, no. 4, pp. 1255-1265, 2021
