Intervention Tools for Farmers — Safe and Productive Work Practices in a SaferWork Environment

Abstract

Recent interventions in agricultural safety and health have developed a more comprehensive and contextual approach to farm safety behaviors. These are broad, general approaches to safe work practices that complement the task-focused safety training and engineering interventions of many farm safety programs. Some common features of these more recent interventions are: (1) the interventions require the active participation of the farmers and farm workers, for whom the interventions are intended; (2) farm economics and productivity are recognized as powerful determinants in shaping the structure and organization of the enterprise; (3) safe work practices and safety-related improvements in the work environment are shown to promote the productivity and economic viability of the farm; and (4) participation from community members, including extension agents, 4-H, FFA, educators, equipment dealers, insurance agents, bankers, local media, and others can be the key to making such interventions successful—both in the early phases, and over the long term. This article describes a breakout session that was held at the Agricultural Health and Safety Conference sponsored by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 15-17 July 1997, in Morgantown, West Virginia. The panel was convened to address the approaches to interventions outlined above. These approaches, brief highlights of six presentations illustrating these approaches to interventions, comments from three discussants, and feedback from the audience are summarized in this article.