Examination of Pain, Posture, Physical and Mental Status in Seasonal Hazelnut Workers

Overview

The collection of hazelnuts grown in our country provides a great source of employment for local people and seasonal workers. However, geographical conditions in hazelnut growing areas, challenging variable weather conditions in August and insufficient number of workers create a disadvantageous environment for seasonal workers. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effects of working conditions on mental status, fatigue, pain severity and postures (posture disorders, developmental delays, etc.) of young adults working in Giresun during the hazelnut picking season in comparison with the group living in the same sociodemographic and cultural environment but not working as seasonal workers.

Agricultural work is a very broad concept that includes crop production as well as animal husbandry, forestry and aquaculture. An agricultural worker is a person who is unable to farm on his/her own account and tries to make a living by working for wages. A seasonal agricultural worker, on the other hand, is a person who works seasonally in someone else's agricultural field at any stage of agricultural production such as planting, cultivation, spraying, harvesting, in return for wages/wages or in-kind payment, permanently or on a mobile basis (Dedeoğlu \& Bayraktar, 2019). The common point of seasonal agricultural workers, whether mobile or temporary, is that they cannot earn sufficient income from their own agricultural enterprises, they are families with little or no land, and they migrate seasonally (mobile) and/or temporarily (daily) to regions with more agricultural work opportunities in order to make a living. Seasonal (mobile) agricultural workers usually stay in the places where they go to work until the work is finished. Families may work in more than one region and in different production areas depending on climate and time. Migration to the Black Sea region is carried out for the hazelnut harvest. During the hazelnut harvest, which can last from August to September 15, workers reside in Artvin, Rize, Trabzon, Giresun, Ordu, Samsun, Sinop, Zonguldak, Bartın, Sakarya, Kocaeli. Some of these workers additionally travel to Çukurova and other cotton-growing provinces in September-October for the cotton harvest. According to the 2011 nationwide "Determination of the Needs of Seasonal Agricultural Workers and Their Families Survey", it was found that seasonal agricultural workers' needs mostly related to shelter such as toilets, bathrooms, hygiene, electricity/clean water, isolation, health services and childcare could not be adequately met. Seasonal agricultural workers work under many disadvantageous conditions. There is a need for further studies on the physical and psychological effects of these harsh conditions in the open environment and in the summer season and the negative changes that may be caused by working as seasonal workers at a young age.