Workload and Rating of Perceived Exertion of the female laborers in cutting of sorghum crop

Women constitute almost half of the workforce engaged in agriculture. The rural women participate in a broad range of agricultural activities involve a lot of physical strain which create serious health problems in the long run. Keeping this in view a study was conducted in four villages of Dharwad taluka were randomly selected for the study thus a total sample comprised of 160 women. With respect to the tools for harvest and post harvest activities of sorghum crop i.e., two improved sickle from dev Agro Tools Bangalore and one from CIAE Bhopal. The results revealed that mean working heart rate and energy expenditure was higher during cutting stalks with CIAE Bhopal sickle i.e., 141.40 beats/min and 13.76kj/min respectively when compared to traditional sickle. Based on the mean working heart rate, cutting stalks of sorghum crop was classified as very heavy for CIAE Bhopal sickle and as heavy for traditional, I-108and I-104 sickles. With respect to the musculoskeletal disorder, the female laborers expressed very severe pain by the use of CIAE Bhopal sickle compared to other sickle and less score was observed with I-104 sickle for upper and lower parts of the body. Challenges in this study included the physical strain experienced by the women during the use of various sickles, which could affect the accuracy and consistency of the data on health impacts. Additionally, assessing musculoskeletal disorders and energy expenditure in real-world settings posed logistical difficulties, as individual variations in technique and body type may have influenced the results. Despite these challenges, the study contributed valuable insights into the differences in health impacts between traditional and improved sickles, highlighting the importance of ergonomic tools for reducing physical strain in agricultural tasks. The findings emphasize the need for better tool design to prevent musculoskeletal disorders and optimize energy expenditure for female agricultural workers.