Mental stress minimization in farmers: an approach using REBA, PSO, and SA

The Indian farmers are mostly engaged in the production of rice, wheat, etc. involving repetitive and stressful cultivation tasks that are usually carried out by manual efforts irrespective of the changing climatic conditions. Moreover, in the Indian agricultural scenario, the farmers need of adequate cultivating plans and strategies in order to perform their routine agricultural activities in an effective and efficient way for the ultimate enhancement of overall farm productivity. However, few studies are found focusing on the evaluation and intervention strategies with regard to the necessary ergonomic aspects in agriculture. Therefore, the present study was aimed to evaluate the ergonomic risks in the agricultural sectors that may lead to mental stresses as well as musculoskeletal disorders among farmers. This study was carried out by considering 149 farmers from the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha in India. The ergonomic tool such as Rapid Entire Body Assessment was used to analyze the working postures of farm workers. Further based on the objective function as minimization of mental stresses on farmers, the Particle Swarm Optimization and Simulated Annealing algorithms were used to find the best fitness values. Based on the findings, suitable ergonomic-solutions may be undertaken for the design and development of proper farm-related as well as farmers' protective tools for their benefits.

Automated summary

Indian farmers engage in repetitive and stressful agricultural tasks, requiring more ergonomic evaluations and intervention strategies, while optimized algorithms can help find appropriate solutions.