STUDY OF SOME VARIABLES RELATED TO AGRICULTURAL ERGONOMIC DESIGN OF MANUAL TILLAGE TOOLS USED IN SOKOTO STATE.

The research is aim at gathering information on some important variables required for the design of manual tillage tools, Seven (7) physical variable used in functional and ergonomic design of agricultural manual tillage tools ciz: total weight (TW), blade weight (BW), handle length (HL), blade length (BL), handle circumference (HC), blade curvature (BC), and weight of scoped soil (SW) were measured for 119 manual tillage tools used in Sokoto state. The tools were grouped into four (4) categories: Hauya, Kalme, Kwasa and Sungumi, used respectively for primary tillage, secondary tillage, Land preparation, harvesting and planting. Descriptive statistics was used and the values of the means, median, standard error of mean (SED) of all the variables were presented. All 119 manual tillage tools studies were of moderate weight (sungumi, 1.40kg, Kalme, 2.10kg, kwasa, 1.40kg and hauya, 1.90kg),Handle circumference (Sungumi, 39.10cm, Kalme, 44.55cm, kwasa, 40.10cm and hauya, 44.90cm). Handle length (Sungumi, 136.40cm, Kalme, 63.95cm, Kwasa, 65.10cm and hauya, 69.50cm). This can conveniently handle by the average farmers and are equally suitable because they are designed base on how operation is been done, which is either standing (with long handle) or stooped (medium handle). These values are required for redesign or modification of manual tillage tools.