Social pressure from other farmers and advisers “positively” influences attitudes to health and safety on farms, a new study has found.
Research carried out as part of the ‘Teagasc Be Safe’ project studying farmer behaviour also highlighted that farm advisors sometimes fear losing the trust of farmers if they discuss issues of farm safety with them.
The results of the research revealed that advisors are reluctant to discuss these issues with farmers if they feel the farmer does not regard them as important.
The study, published by Teagasc and funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, also found that if farmers do not prioritise this issue as an important part of farm work, they will not ask for support from their advisor on it.
Health and safety
Dr. Mohammad Mohammadrezaei, lead author of the study, said: “Advisors are less likely to talk about farm health and safety if they think that farmers they work with, and leading farmers in particular, believe farm safety is unimportant.
“To change this, farmers need to be proactive and ask advisors about health or safety issues.”
Dr. John McNamara, a health and safety specialist at Teagasc said: “Advisors have training and practical knowledge to strongly support farmers to improve health and safety management.
“This is best done in an integrated way when farmers are discussing farm performance and developments with their advisors.”
Meanwhile, Dr. David Meredith, Teagasc research officer said: “We now need to translate our study findings into practical measures that can be adopted by farmers.
“A key element of this is to increase positive dialogue between farmers and their advisors on implementation of positive health and safety measures on farms.”
Surveys were completed by 136 advisors, and the findings showed that perceived social pressure from leading farmers were identified as one of the key factors that directly influenced the intentions of advisors.
It also highlighted that social pressure from leading and conventional farmers, and other advisors directly influenced the intention of advisors to engage with farmer health and safety (FHS).
Recommendations
The authors of the study believe that the results highlight “the importance of involving leading farmers in advisor training activities relating to FHS as a way of demonstrating and confirming the importance of this issue to advisors”.
The study has also put forward practical suggestions to involve of farmers and advisors in the design and delivery of education and training programmes that are aimed to develop advisor competencies to engage in FHS.