Ergonomic Evaluation of Manual Weeders
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52151/jae2002394.1017Abstract
Three types of manual weeders namely wheel hoe, crescent hoe and kasola (a spade type tool) were ergonomically evaluated. The performance in respect of the area coverage, overall discomfort and body part discomfort were evaluated. The highest field capacity was observed in wheel hoes. At the overall discomfort score of 4 i.e. "very tired", in all the cases, output of work was 108.21 sq m, 66.74 sq m and 58 sq m and body part discomfort score was 29.5, 26.22 and 23.22 for wheel hoe, crescent hoe and crescent hoe and kasola respectively. There was significant difference in the area covered by whee! Hoe and the other two hoes whereas overall tiredness and body part discomfort score were non-significantly different among different weeders.
Downloads
References
Corlett E N; Bishop R P. 1976. A technique for assessing postural discomfort. Ergonomics, 19: 175 - 182.
Grandjean E. 1988. Fitting the task to the man: A text book of Occupational Ergonomics. Taylor And Francis.
Nag P K; Dutt P. 1979. Effectiveness of some simple agricultural weeders with reference to physiological responses. J. Human Ergol 8: 11-21.
Rainbird G; O'Neill D. 1995. Occupational disorders affecting agricultural workers in tropical developing countries. Applied Ergonomics, 26: 187-193.
Tiwari V K; Datta R K; Murthy A S R. 1991. Evaluation of three manually operated weeding devices. Applied Ergonomics, 22: 111-116.
Yoshitake H. 1971. Relations between the symptoms and feeling of fatigue. Proceeding of the symposium on Methodology in human fatigue assessment, held in Kyoto, Japan, Taylor and Francis Ltd, London, 175-185.
