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Improved accessibility means safer farmsteads
 

By Celeste Baumgartner

Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Farmers never retire; they just keep on going, observed Steve Swain, rural rehabilitation specialist with Indiana AgrAbility at Purdue University.

And sometimes they don’t want to admit they have trouble doing something. So, AgrAbility tries to make farmers aware of some of the products and modifications that can make their days easier.

AgrAbility is a national program from the USDA and is part of the farm bill. Its vision is to enhance the quality of life for farmers, ranchers and other agricultural workers with disabilities, thereby restoring hope and renewing productivity.

While "disability" often brings to mind injuries such as spinal cord injuries and amputations, AgrAbility also addresses many other conditions, such as arthritis, back impairments and behavioral health issues.

At The Ohio State University, Laura Akgerman, AgrAbility services coordinator, talked about a camera and monitor combination setup so farmers don’t have to turn to look behind them when they need to know what’s going on with the equipment they’re operating.

“There are packages that have a monitor or two, and one, two or three cameras, depending on what the farmer’s need is,” she explained. “One camera would typically be either looking down on the hitch mounted on the center, or the back of your piece of equipment that you often hitch things to.”

A second camera could be looking straight out so a farmer can see where they’ve been if they’re plowing or planting. They could point a third one higher, mounted on a cab aiming upward, so if they were harvesting and pulling a grain cart, they could see if the chute was sending the grain into the wagon and not missing it.

Depending on the equipment the farmer is using, a monitor could be mounted equivalent to where the sun visor eye-level is on a car, or on top of the dashboard or its equivalent. Mounting depends on what options the farmer has and where they are most comfortable looking, Akgerman said.

“If I were setting that up, I would also take into account if they had any issues moving their neck and head around,” she pointed out. “If they had to look up even a little, if they were constantly looking in a rear-view mirror, that might get uncomfortable. It depends on a particular farmer, their particular equipment, then also where they want to be holding their head all day.”

Ohio AgrAbility is exhibiting in Booth 470 at this week’s Farm Science Review in London, Ohio. For more information online, visit https://agrability.osu.edu

To the south, Mike Lewis – AgrAbility director for the University of Kentucky’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension – and his crew are working on mobile application technologies with greenhouse uses that allow farmers who do not have the use of their hands to control nutrient and light levels in a greenhouse. They are also implementing Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility so a farmer in a wheelchair can move around in the greenhouse.

They are working with the Israeli company which developed Sesame Enable, Lewis said. This is a touch-free facial recognition software that recognizes the features of the user and follows their eye movements to control the mouse clicks and the operation of a tablet. The cost of the Sesame Enable application on a tablet is under $1,500 for a lifetime membership.

“Then, we’re working with our partners in greenhouse production facilities to integrate those controls into the applications so if they don’t necessarily have use of their hands or (be) bound by other limitations – they can still control light and nutrient levels in a greenhouse,” he said.

Lewis is also interested in a $1.6 million greenhouse production facility, growing lettuce and other fresh produce. His team is using a technology called Raspberry Pi, tiny microprocessors which sit on the soil and take readings of what the soil is lacking. The user can interface and make automatic adjustments, and then the application will be done hands-free.

“Part of the mission of AgrAbility is cultivating accessible agriculture,” he said. “We’re really into doing that, and learning how do we bring a new class of workers to agriculture? We’re at this crisis where we have a declining number of farmers.

“We’re interested in how technology will allow the new demographic in the workforce. Technology has made everything accessible. We have all these amazing things, which make agriculture accessible to anybody that wants to grow something.”

Lewis has a particular interest in the disabled military veteran population, and how to make greenhouses accessible so they can use wheelchairs or whatever necessary to access their worksite. In general, as indoor agriculture production increases, he sees more opportunities for people with limitations.

Kentucky AgrAbility is offered in all 120 counties of the state. To learn about the service, visit www.ca.uky.edu/ANR/Agrability/NewAgrabilityWebsite/index.php

At Purdue University, Swain talked about automatic hitching devices that enable farmers to hook and unhook from some of their equipment, without getting on and off the tractor or pickup truck.

“Part of what we try to do, especially with our older farmers and with the farm economy as it is, we keep in mind the financial investment to where they’re not spending a lot of money to make that change,” he explained. “The automatic hitching device, they’re looking at $500 to do it.”

More tractors and equipment now come with GPS and auto-steer units, he said. That gets a little more pricey, but it enables the farmer to drive longer during the day. There is also a universal auto-steer that farmers can install on tractors that do not come equipped with auto-steer.

And, at no cost, “one of the things that farmers need to do is be sure to stop and stretch and work those muscles every hour or two,” Swain added. “If it hurts, stop and stretch. Sitting for extended periods of time can get hard on you and make it difficult to move. If you are hurting more, it affects your concentration and makes you more susceptible to having an accident or injury.”

For more information on Indiana AgrAbility, visit https://engineering.purdue.edu/~bng/team.php

And, visit www.agrability.org and, on the left side of the page, scroll down to the “Toolbox” to learn in detail about the devices mentioned in this article and more than 1,500 others.

9/19/2018