Farm Safety: A Study of Young Farmers’ Awareness, Attitudes and Behaviors

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Agriculture in the United Kingdom (UK) continues to be one of the most dangerous occupations, accounting for around a fifth of fatal workplace injuries and many other injuries, both major and minor. This study examines young farmers’ awareness of, attitude to and behaviors around safety practices on-farm.

Method

A survey was undertaken amongst a group of young farmers aged 16-years and over who were actively engaged in farming in Northern Ireland, focusing on attitudes and behaviors towards safety on-farm. Drawing on previous literature, this study examined whether younger farmers demonstrate a higher degree of risk tolerance and are more likely to engage in risk taking behavior when undertaking routine farming practices leading to potential injuries and lost working days. The young farmers surveyed were classified into three groups and differences in risk perception were examined.

Results

The results indicate that, statistically, farmer age, intensity of farming alongside the level of farming experience contribute to incident occurrence. Our results indicate a need for attitudinal and behavioral change, particularly around risk-taking behaviors that ultimately result in farm incidents, impacting on both the performance of the farm business and individual farmer well-being.

Conclusion

Policies aimed at addressing perception and acceptance of risks among farmers are recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Farm safety
• young farmers
• risk awareness
• attitudes
• behaviors and practices

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2023.2180124

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development .