Study on Physiological Work Load of Farmers Engaged in Rush Cultivating and Weaving Process / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

As above-mentioned, the rush cultivating process has been traditionally manual hard work. But, since 1970 progress has been made in mechanization of work procedure such as rush cutting, smearing and driing.<BR>Comparative study on each work load with manual and machinery process was conducted four times from 1968 to 1978. The results were as follows.<BR>The lightening of physical load was apparently seen in the some procedures. For example, from 6.7-10.0 kcal/65 kg/min in manual cutting process to 2.4-8.1 kcal/65 kg/min mechannized process. And, average value of relative metabolic rate a working day was lowered 3.6 to 3.4 for males, 3.8 to 3.5 for females.<BR>Shortening of working hours in a day and decrease of energy expenditure was seen for both sexes. But this tendency was not so impressive in females as in males, because these machines were mainly operated by males and so other additional works, not yet mechanized such as rush bundling and transportation, was likely taken by females.<BR>Hours of work per 10 a was decreased by 34% during 10 years, 1968-1978. But yet, personal work load and/or per household were not rather decreased by such mechanization.