Anthropometry into Design of Hand Tools in Agriculture: An Ergonomic Approach for Occupational Wellbeing

In traditional agriculture, hand tools play an important role. Even though agricultural laborers have been using hand tools for years, there hasn’t been much of a shift in their design over the past century. A person’s musculoskeletal load from manual labor with hand-powered tools can frequently lead to short-term muscle fatigue and decreased work capacity and can lead to long-term consequences such as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and chronic muscle pain. One of the drudgery prone tasks in agricultural field is weeding. Weeds in Assam are typically pulled by hand, or with the help of a small hand fork if the soil is extremely dry. This can lead to hand rashes and pain in the fingers, wrists, and joints. Understanding the need of the study attempts had been made to find out the problems faced by the farmers while performing weeding activity and designing a customized weeding tool (Khurpi) by using ergonomic design principles. A total of 80 respondents selected randomly to collect the anthropometric data to aid the design modification process. Examining the design features of locally hand tool, i.e., khurpi issues came into foreface were with the tool’s weight, size, shape, and construction materials. Therefore, an improved khurpi was designed by applying ergonomic principles and customization.