Ergonomic Practices in Africa: Date Palm Agriculture in Algeria as an Example

For more than fifty years, early ergonomists such as [1‐4] called for the application of ergonomics in developing countries to expand its application rather than its confinement to developed countries. Indeed, ergonomists from developing countries applied ergonomics to many traditional workplaces, machines, and jobs in the field of what was called at that time, traditional ergonomics. Despite what has been done, the African share of ergonomic studies is modest when compared to the ergonomic work done in other continents. Date palm farming is considered as one of the most important economic resources especially in hot and dry areas in Africa. In Algeria, according to Bouguedoura et al. [5], the number of date palms is in millions. The number of people who work in date palm industry is also very great. The majority of date palm work is carried out after the farmer climbs the trunk to reach the crown. The worker climbs the palm tree, which may be about 21–23 m in height, barefooted and in rare cases uses a harness or a rope for support. The work is insecure and associated with significantly higher rates of work related musculoskeletal disorders. This paper aims to answer the following questions: