Ergonomic evaluation of farmwomen of Shahdol district (M.P.) while performing wheat harvesting activity

The study was undertaken in Shahdol, district of MP to determine the physical fitness, time and activity profile, physiological of farm women, while performing the wheat harvesting activity. The experiment was carried out on 10 farm women of age group of 25 to 45 years. The mean age of the farm women was 30 years, mean body height was 155.5 cm and mean weight was 45.5. Average working heart rate was 124.4 and 100.9 beats/min for plain and serrated sickles, respectively. The output was 159.2 and 149.2 m2/hr for plain and serrated sickle but energy expenditure was found to be 10.52 and 7.18 kj/min for plain and serrated sickles, respectively. Summarizing farm women performing wheat harvesting activity, give more output with plain sickle as compared to serrated sickle, but the energy expenditure and cardiac cost showed opposite trend. Hence serrated sickle is highly beneficial for farm women of Shahdol for wheat harvesting activity. Also periodic training is required to educate farmwomen on the cardiac cost involved in each farm activity.