Journal of Community Mobilization and Sustainable Development

Agricultural work in the crop production system is one of the laborious jobs that require physical stamina and good posture, but it is also very exhausting, time-consuming, and stressful. Farm women are forced to work in extremely hazardous conditions because they lack access to improved agricultural technologies. The research envisaged assessing and quantifying the drudgery in crop production system by rural hill women in which physiological and postural evaluation of agricultural activities was done for different activities by women farm workers with three replications of ten minutes work cycle without rest pause. Observations were recorded on farm women worker with normal health, without any major illness, regularly involved in farm operations. In the attempt to obtain and analyze the prioritized drudgery experiences in crop production activities through drudgery assessment and reduction, various ergonomically sound farm tools and implements were provided for crop cultivation and intercultural operations. The study was conducted in North Western Himalayan Region and physiological ergonomics evaluation was done for traditional method and with improved technological support. Various postural ergonomics techniques were used for quantification of musculoskeletal issues with traditional method and postural evaluation of farm women while performing various agricultural activities. Data for indicating musculoskeletal disorders were analysed by android based mobile applications available for ergonomics assessment of postural and biomechanical assessments viz. Rapid Entire Body assessment (REBA), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Human Physical Drudgery Index (HPDI). After quantification, gender friendly agricultural tools were demonstrated for weeding activities done by women in nutri-gardens. Weeding efficiency was evaluated using traditional and improved agricultural tools developed for women. Different types of weeding tools were evaluated in vegetables crops (Brinjal, Tomato, Capsicum, cauliflower and Okra). The weeding operation with improved technology was observed advantageous in terms of time, quality and weeding efficiency for all the crops.