Caracterização da carga física de trabalho na horticultura orgânica

Abstract

There are many researches on organic agriculture regarding technical, economic or ecological issues; few researches, however, tries to identify the characteristics of the workload in organic agriculture under an ergonomic perspective. This project aimed the characterization of the physical workload in organic horticulture by determining the frequency of exposure of operators to some activity categories. To do this, an adaptation of the PATH method (Posture, Activities, Tools and Handling) was done to be used in the context of agriculture work. The approach included an evaluation of physical effort demanded to perform the tasks in the work systems from an systematic sampling of work situations from a synchronized monitoring of the heart rate; a characterization of posture repertoire adopted by workers by adapting the OWAS method; an identification of pain body areas using the Corlett diagram; and a subjective evaluation of perceived effort using the RPE Borg scale. The results of the individual assessments were cross correlated and explained from an observation of the work activity. The results suggest that the adopted method was efficient to characterize the workload of the organic horticulture. Postural demands were more significant than cardiovascular demands for the studied tasks, and correlated positively with the expressions of bodily discomfort. It is expected that, besides the knowledge obtained of the physical effort demanded by organic horticulture, this project will be useful for the development of new technologies directed to minimize the difficulties of the human work and to raise the work productivity. vii LISTA DE TABELAS TABELA 1. OS PRINCIPAIS PROCEDIMENTOS PARA UMA PRODUÇÃO AGRÍCOLA ORGÂNICA SUSTENTÁVEL .