Published Paper Details:

Work related musculoskeletal disorders have become a major risk in agriculture industry due to lack of ergonomically designed instruments and the wrong work postures occupied by the workers. This paper presents a study on various working postures occupied in manual transplantation activity of vegetables. The agriculture sector have major role in Indian economy and it is the place where work posture analysis is mostly neglected. The study was conducted on 70 workers engaged in various activities of vegetable production. Posture analysis tool Rapid Upper Limb Assessment was used. The different activities of the workers were recorded by video and still photography, and these images were used for analysis. The final scores of Rapid Upper Limb Assessment during various working activities were found to be high. The findings revealed that there are ergonomic deficiencies in the planning and work methods. A significant proportion of the workers are working in high risk postures. Thus the workers are under moderate to high risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The study recommended a proper implementation of ergonomics interventions program with awareness and training among workers to reduce the risks of WMSD.