An ergonomic intervention for manual load carrying on Indian farms

Abstract

The farm inputs like seeds, fertilizers and produce are handled manually in most of the low-income and underdeveloped countries. Such practice of manual load carrying is one of the dominant contributors to back pain and associated physiological problems.In the present study, it was found that volume, quantum and distance determine the mode of load carrying. Bulky or voluminous commodities like harvested cereal crops and fodder are carried on the head. Heavy loads of paddy and vegetables filled in gunny bags, which limits the volume to bag size are carried on the back. Carrying the load on the head is by and large prevailing mode because it does not introduce eccentricity and postures remain balanced., In the present study, an attempt is made to develop a harness, which does not alter the head loading but prevents the loading of the spine. Three approaches considered were: Approach-I (harness H1): load passing through shoulders only (one path only); Approach II (harness H2): load passing through head and shoulder (through two paths only); Approach III (harness H3): Load passing through head and shoulder (through two paths), but in this approach, load on the cervical spine was limited to 10 kg and rest of the load was transferred to shoulder with proper stability. The outcome of ergonomic studies showed that Approach-III is the most metaboliclly economical, compared to other developed approaches and could be adopted for Indian agricultural farm load carriage for various purposes.