title: Impact of ergonomic intervention in manual orange harvester among the workers of hilly region in India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Manual orange harvesting is very laborious, time consuming and unsafe operation whereas neither mechanical harvesting nor mechanized hand harvesting is possible in north-east India due to its hilly terrains. The awkward postures and repetitive nature of work in orange harvesting, demands a comfortable and appropriate hand harvester for hilly region.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to develop a manual orange harvester for hilly regions considering the ergonomic parameters, and compare the performance with the existing models of the manual harvester.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study twenty healthy experienced orchard workers (10 male and 10 female) participated who did not have any previous functional musculoskeletal disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a manual orange harvester by eliminating the problems associated with the existing harvesters. The developed model along with existing models was evaluated extensively in the field. During evaluations, heart rate of the subjects was measured and oxygen consumption was predicted to calculate the energy expenditure rate (EER) from the established relationship in the laboratory before the field experiments. Further, performance parameters of orange harvester i.e. plucking rate (PR), damaged quantity (DQ), plucking energy requirement (PER) and discomfort rating were also observed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PR was 425, 300 and 287 pieces per hour for the developed model (DM), first existing model (EM1) and second existing model (EM2), respectively. The DM showed lower PER (2.14 kJ/piece) followed by EM2 (2.95 kJ/piece) and EM1 (4.02 kJ/piece) which is considered as overall performance as it includes energy per unit of plucking. Further, the body part discomfort score revealed that DM was more comfortable in use followed by EM2 and EM1.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The performance of the DM was found better in terms of plucking rate, energy requirement and body part discomfort than the other existing models. Shoulders and neck are the most affected body parts where all subjects felt severe discomfort.
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Pranav
authors.forename: Thaneswer
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032084:Citrus sinensis; D006804:Ergonomics / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D000067565:Farmers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D059352:Musculoskeletal Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D053001:Tool Use Behavior; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Manual harvester; discomfort; energy expenditure rate; heart rate; orange