The workloads of farmers who sort and pack strawberries in accordance with standards of shipment and their awareness of standards of shipment / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

For simplification of dealings in the central wholesale markets and reduction ofexpenditures in the marketing systems, the standards of shipment are provided for almost all agricultural products as general commodities. In addition to harvesting, the farmers must sort and pack the agricultural products in accordance with the standards of shipment. This has resulted in an increase in the farmers' workloads.<BR>Therefore we investigated the workloads of strawberry-growing farmers during sorting and packing strawberries.<BR>According to the sandard of shipment, strawberries are graded into three categories by quality, six categories by size and three categories by weight, and that combination is very complicated. The farmers spend much time sorting and packing strawberries. Particularly in February and March when strawberries of all sizes are shipped, sorting and packing occupy more than60% of all working hours. The smaller in size the strawberries become, the more time the farmers spend on sorting and packing a pack. We investigated the farmers' work postures, Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency (CFF) and heart rate during work. The results of the investigation showed that sortingand packing strawberries constituted hard physical and mental labour because of the complicated standards. Inquiries regarding awareness of the standards of shipment revealed that 84.3% of the strawberry growing farmers recognized the necessity of the standard of shipment. But 64% of them hoped to make the standards simpler. Simplication of the standards of shipment might reduce farmers' workloads and moreover give consumers benefit.