## 4 Discussion  
This study addresses participatory ergonomic interventions recommended for an annual peach farming cycle in a Korean farming organization. Most existing studies focus on interventions for parts of the agricultural work, such as pruning, load carrying, harvesting, and sorting [2, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25]. In contrast, an ergonomic analysis was conducted for all tasks performed during the entire agricultural work cycle of peach farming in this study, and interventions were proposed based on the results of the ergonomic analysis. The interventions focused on crop-specific tasks by considering variations in agricultural work; thus, this study presents a procedure for participatory ergonomics and the effects of ergonomic interventions in a farming organization. The procedures and results from this study can be applied to other types of crop farming activities and in industries. Both engineering and administrative controls or only administrative controls were introduced based on the characteristics of the risk factors depending on agricultural practices categorized under the 4 M criteria. Engineering controls, including powered carts (with adjustable height) and fruit sorters, were implemented for harvesting, pruning, thinning flower and fruit, wrapping fruits in paper bags, composting (load carrying), and sorting, which require lifting and carrying heavy loads as well as severe or full-body bending (stooping, squatting, kneeling, etc.). These were identified as the main farming tasks that cause WMSDs [2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14]. Postural loads for six awkward postures occurring in the above tasks were classified as RULA action level 4 and were reduced to action level 1 or 2 after implementing the interventions. The engineering controls implemented in this study can help promote farmers' health, including WMSDs. Further, the scores of subjective evaluations obtained through a questionnaire survey were found to be high (>4.1 for five questions). Although the subjective risk scores for most risk factors where engineering interventions were introduced, including pruning, pesticide spraying, thinning flower and fruit, wrapping fruits in bags, and harvesting, agreed with the objective assessments at the highest score or level (i.e., subjective risk score of 9 and RULA action level of 4), the two evaluations may be different from each other for sorting and packaging, i.e., subjective risk score of 6 (<highest score of 9) and RULA action level of 4 (Table 2). This may be attributed to the simple method of obtaining subjective risk scores by multiplying the frequency and intensity for a farming risk factor categorized under 4 M. The simple method, instead of a more scientific method such as the RULA, was adopted so that farmers without knowledge of ergonomics could easily participate in this study. All members of the farming organization purchased powered carts or height-adjustable powered carts; the other engineering interventions were selectively adopted based on the needs of each member within the assigned budget. The total budget of USD 44,840 (KRW 53,000,000), excluding the consulting fee charged by the ergonomist (USD 5075 (KRW 6,000,000)), was distributed equally among the members. If the cost for interventions selected by a member exceeded the allocated budget, he had to pay the excess. All members of the organization and the ergonomist (the author of this study) participated in all processes of the ergonomic interventions, from the identification of risk factors during the crop phase to evaluation of the interventions. All ergonomic interventions adopted in this study were suggested in consultations with all members of the organization and the ergonomist. The interventions were evaluated subjectively by the members and objectively using the ergonomics tool of RULA by the author. Thus, the interventions were implemented according to a participatory approach involving the government (financial support), an ergonomics expert, and the farmers.