Abstract
Introduction: Indian agricultural sector has been undergoing changes since 1950s. The record production of food grains from 50 million tons in 1950 to 241 million tons in 2009-10 is hailed as a breakthrough in Indian agriculture. However, agricultural sector in India is till date significantly dependent on non-mechanized techniques. An agricultural worker has to perform variety of tasks including ploughing, transplanting, threshing which require great physical effort. During the paddy cultivation, agricultural workers are engaged in the work field though out the day in different thermal conditions. Objective: A study has been carried out, in this backdrop, to assess the thermal environmental condition and effect of work and exposure to heat on physiological status in 31 male agricultural workers primarily engaged in transplanting of paddy seedlings tasks in southern area of West Bengal. Results and conclusion: The result of the study has indicated that environmental condition was above the recommended threshold value and the activities are strenuous as indicated from indicators of physiological strain.
Highlights
Indian agricultural sector has been undergoing changes since 1950s
During the transplanting of paddy seedling task, physiological strain in terms of HRPeak, EEE, net cardiac cost (NCC) and cardio vascular strain index (CSI) of the male paddy cultivators, has been assessed. It has been observed from the present study that in the first, second and third spells of the working hours, the average values of HR Peak, one of the most important indicators of physiological strain [17], varied from 107-112 beats.min-1, 125-129 and 115-117 beats.min-1 respectively and thereby denoting ‘moderate’, ‘heavy’ and ‘heavy’ category of physiological strain [Fig. 1 (a)].The findings of the present study are in agreement with findings of earlier studies conducted on agriculture workers engaged in paddy cultivation [18,19,20,21]
EEE varied from 3.51-3.55 kcal.min-1 and 3.50 -3.55 kcal.min-1 in the first and third spell of the working hours respectively, indicating the work loads are in ‘moderate’ category; whereas in the second spell, the work is in ‘heavy’ category, as the EEE value is in range of 4.51 kcal.min-1[(Fig. 1 (b)]; findings are in agreement with earlier reports[18,19].NCC was found to vary from37-39 beats.min-1in first spell and indicating ‘moderate’ whereas at second and third spell it varied from 55.0-60.5 beats.min-1and 45.0-49.0 beats.min-1 respectively, indicating ‘heavy’ ‘rather heavy’ degree of physiological strain at second and third spells[(Fig. 1 (c)]
Summary
Indian agricultural sector has been undergoing changes since 1950s. The record production of food grains from 50 million tons in 1950 to 241 million tons in 2009-10 is hailed as a breakthrough in Indian agriculture. Agricultural workers are engaged in the work field though out the day in different thermal conditions. Objective: A study has been carried out, in this backdrop, to assess the thermal environmental condition and effect of work and exposure to heat on physiological status in 31 male agricultural workers primarily engaged in transplanting of paddy seedlings tasks in southern area of West Bengal. It has been observed that rise in ambient temperature is strenuous for the individuals, occupationally exposed to high temperature [58].In this backdrop, the present study has been undertaken to evaluate the effect of exposure to heat in the work environment in causing cardiovascular strain in male agricultural workers primarily engaged in transplanting of paddy seedlings tasks in district Hooghly in southern area of West Bengal
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