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HARVESTING WHEAT MANUALLY BY HARYANA FARMWOMEN


In India wheat harvesting is mainly a manual operation carried by farmwomen. Although the use of different types of harvesters are a practice for large land holders, a large majority of small and marginal farmers are still dependent on sickles due to limitations of power supply, availability of human labour and the tools locally available, simple in design and operation of sickles. Earlier studies conducted by the research team of All India Co-Ordinated Research Project of ICAR have featured the design evaluation for fodder harvesting. The relative performance evaluation of sickles for wheat crop harvesting was felt as important in order to reduce the drudgery of heavy harvesting activity. Hence the study was undertaken to fulfill the following 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.

METHOD USED
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.

FINDINGS
Physical characteristics
The results of the study have been discussed under the following subheads: Physical characteristics, activity profile, output parameters, physiological stress, and biomechanical stress.
I.Physical characteristics
Physical characteristics of the women cutting wheat in Table 1 depict that mean age of
woman was 34.6 years. Aerobic capacity (VO2 max) was found to be 31.7 ml/kg x min
exhibiting that the subjects were having good health. Fat percentage worked out was 25.2%. Hence lean body mass (LBM) was 39.9 kg. Body mass index (BMI) was observed as 22.6.
Body type
One half of the women (50%) were having mesomorph body type, which is considered as the perfect body type (Fig.1). This was followed by 30 percent under endomorph
(Obese) body type and rest 20 percent farm women were having ectomorph (below normal) body type.
Physical Fitness Index (PFI)
Fig.2 illustrates that one half of the selected subjects (50%) were having high average physical fitness followed by good (40%) and very good (10%). After conducting physical fitness test, their perceived exertion was observed. Figure 2 illustrates that forty percent of the subject perceived PF test as moderately heavy.
Activity profile
Table 2 shows the comparative data for activity profile of women harvesting wheat using different sickles.
Tool used: Four different sickles i.e. one local (S0) and three improved i.e. falcon plastic handle (S1), falcon wooden handle (S2) and naveen sickle (S3) were tested for harvesting wheat. S0 was the heaviest weighing about 234 gm followed by S2 (217 gm) and S3 (198 gm.).was lightest weighing about 186 gm.
Distance traveled: A woman walked maximum of 31.3 m while harvesting wheat with S2 sickle followed by 30m with S1 sickle. Distance traveled with S3 sickle and S0 sickle was 29.6 m and 29.0 m respectively. Results indicate that good sickle resulted in more distance traveled ultimately more output than the other sickles.
II Output parameters
Output of operation: Output of operation includes amount of wheat harvested during specified period by different sickles. Results in Table 3 reveal that S2 sickle resulted in maximum of output i.e. 64.9 kg. followed by S1 sickle (64.0 kg.) and S3 sickle(62.9 kg) . S0 sickle shows the lowest output (61.9 kg).
Area covered: Area covered was maximum for S2 sickle i.e. 40.3 m2 followed by 40m2 for S1 sickle and S3 sickle (39.8 m2). All the sickles covered more area than the S0 sickle that resulted in coverage of 39.5 m2.
Production per square meter: Production per square meter was maximum for S2 sickle (1.61 kg.) followed by S1 sickle (1.6 kg.) and S3 sickle (1.58 kg.) Production per square meter was more in all the sickles than the S0 sickle that resulted in 1.56 kg production per square meter.
Production per minute: Production per minute was calculated by dividing the total output by 30 min. Production per minute was maximum for S2 sickle (2.16 kg.) followed by S1 sickle (2.1 kg.). Production per minute was same for S0 sickle and S3 sickle (2.0 kg.).

III Physiological stress
Heart rate: Heart rate measurement during any activity is an indicator of cardiac stress due to physical workload. Table 3 reveals that during wheat harvesting mean working heart rate was same for S1 sickle and S2 sickle i.e. 107.5 beats/ min which was 2.7 percent less than the average working heart rate for S0 sickle i.e. 110.8 beats/min. Average working heart rate for S3 sickle was 1.0% less than the S0 sickle. Similar trend was observed in case of peak heart rate. Average peak heart rate observed for S0 sickle was about 125.5 beats/min. whereas for S1 and S2 sickles were about 124.1 beats/min. and 123.0 beats/min respectively. Average peak heart rate was about 1.35 percent less for S2 sickle followed by 1.11 percent for S1sickle. S3 sickle exhibited 0.3 percent decrease in average peak heart than the So. Energy expenditure: Energy expenditure during wheat harvesting with S0 sickle was 9.6 kj/min whereas for other sickles it ranged from 8.37 kj/min to 9.5 kj/min. Energy expenditure was same for S1sickle and S2 sickle i.e. 8.37 kj/min. Minimum energy expenditures were reported for S2 sickle (10.9) followed by S1 sickle (11.0 kj/min. S2 sickle resulted maximum reduction in energy expenditure (4.3%) than S0 sickle followed by S1 sickle (3.5%).

Total cardiac cost of work (TCCW): Average TCCW for S0 sickle was 1283.5 beats/min. Total cardiac cost of work for all the sickles ranged from 1020 beats/min to1283 beats/min. Reduction in TCCW with all sickles over S0 sickle was maximum with S2 sickle (20.5%) followed by S1 sickle (20.4%). S3 sickle resulted 0.03 percent decrease in TCCW in comparison to S0 sickle.
Physiological cost of work (PCW): Average (PCW) for local sickle was 42.8 beats/min. PCW was minimum for S2 sickle (34.0 beats/min.). PCW for S1 sickle was about 34.1 beats/min. PCW for S3 sickle was same as for the S0 sickle.
Rating of perceived exertion: Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was heavy for S0 sickle whereas RPE was light for both the S1 and S2 sickles.

IV Bio-mechanical stress
Grip fatigue
The percentage change in grip strength from the normal value was measured. Data reveals that grip strength at rest was 27 Kg for right hand and 14 Kg for left hand. Minimum decrease in grip fatigue was recorded with S2 sickle (3.8% for right and 6.6% for left). The result indicates that S2 sickle resulted less grip fatigue than the other sickles.
Musculo-skeletal problems
Musculo skeletal problems were determined on human body map at five point scale ranging from mild pain(1) to very severe(5). Farm woman reported severe pain in wrist (m.s.=4.8) followed by shoulder joint (m.s. = 4.3) and upper arm (m.s. = 4.0). Severe to moderate pain was reported in fingers (m.s. =3.9), upper back, (m.s. =3.6), feet (m.s. = 3.5) and lower back (m.s. = 3.1).
CONSLUSION
S1 sickle the output by 4.8% percent. It reduces the drudgery of woman by reducing her energy expenditure up to 2.3% over the existing sickle. Biomechanical stress and perceived exertion were also lessened by 7.6% and 25% respectively. Hence S2 sickle was the most efficient for wheat harvesting with minimum drudgery. S2 sickle was much closer to the S1 sickle in terms of output efficiency but had more drudgery due to shape and material of the handle.