Abstract

A survey was conducted to collect the information on the ergonomical and other problems experienced by the farmers and the agricultural workers of Madurai, Theni and Kanyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu in using agricultural tools and machinery during various agricultural operations. Three types of questionnaire were prepared and 25 farmers/agricultural workers were interviewed from one village each from the districts. The villages were selected based on the highest usage of agricultural tools and machinery in the respective district. It was concluded that the tractor operation has problem of vibration which resulted in stomach and back pain. The problem of posture and operation control were not felt by the operators. The tractor accidents were due to lack of training and ignorance of operators. The farmers have no major problems of using animal drawn and power operated implements. The hand tools resulted more stress on neck, arms, back and hands of the operator. The accidents involved in operating the hand tools were due to poor design and ignorance of the user.

Keywords: Ergonomics, accidents, tools, machinery, problems)