Farmer Assessment of the Certified Safe Farm Program

ABSTRACT

This article summarizes the qualitative findings from a study evaluating a novel agricultural health and safety program called Certified Safe Farm (CSF). Results are presented from focus groups held in 2002 and 2006 as well as mail-out surveys conducted in 2001 and 2002. Focus group participants and survey responders were farmers involved in CSF intervention studies. CSF aims to remove hazards through on-farm safety reviews, detect health concerns through clinical screenings, provide personalized occupational health and wellness education, and provide incentives for meeting farm safety targets. Farmers overwhelmingly felt that CSF was beneficial for their health and safety by improving their knowledge and behaviors. In both the focus groups and questionnaires, farmers felt that occupational health screening was the most important component of CSF, and on-farm safety review was the second most important component. Farmers also helped to identify areas in which CSF could be improved in the future. Major areas of suggested program improvement included increased involvement of entire farm families, increased enrollment of younger farmers, increased program incentives such as reduced insurance premiums, and increased ease of access to program providers (AgriSafe clinics), among other recommendations.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture
• qualitative research
• occupational health
• occupational safety
• intervention studies

The Certified Safe Farm studies have been funded by NIOSH (Grant #'s U06/CCU712913, U01/0H008110, U07/0H07548); the Iowa Wellmark Foundation; Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.; Monsanto; the Iowa Pork Producer's Council; and Iowa's Injury Prevention Research Center. We also thank the participating AgriSafe nurses and on-farm safety reviewers.