Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) palm is an important cash crop in India. India is the third largest producer of coconut in the world.
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Coconut is grown in an area of about 18.7 million ha with a productivity of 5718 nuts per hectare in India (National Horticulture Board, 2011).
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Generally, skilled workers climb to harvest the coconuts from the tree without any safety device.
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The coconut trees are very tall and injuries associated with coconut tree climbing, particularly falling from coconut trees is common in coconut plantations in India.
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The workers employed for climbing coconut tree suffer musculoskeletal disorders than any other type of injury or illness.
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With sufficient attention to the larger goals of whatever work is underway, investments in ergonomics can often pay for themselves many times over.
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George et al. (2012) reported that a total of 35.5% (78 cases out of 220 climbers) fell down from coconut trees while doing their job. A 7.9% (19/240) of the tree climbers in the study area withdrew from their traditional profession and remained unemployed.
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Among them, only 5.3% (1/19) stopped climbing trees due to health problems and 94.7% (18/19) withdrew because of casualties that happened during their occupation.