Farmers are being urged to take part in a new programme which is aimed at providing them with “tools to live and work productively and safely”.
The six-week knowledge transfer (KT) programme, developed for FarmConnect, is being rolled out in counties Waterford and Roscommon on a pilot basis from mid-September and was officially launched on the farm of Willie Drohan in Lemybrien, Co. Waterford.
FarmConnect is a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) funded through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the EU’s Rural Development Programme.
It focusses on the physical and mental impact that contemporary farming challenges have in Ireland.
The roll out of the new programme will begin on Monday, September 19 at various rural venues in both counties.
Counties Waterford and Roscommon were selected for the pilot due to their contrasting agricultural profiles and the input of local farming representatives.
The programme will look to recruit 64 farmers in each county to participate.
Facilitators from the agricultural advisory and community development sectors have been trained to deliver the initiative in group settings.
Speaking at the FarmConnect launch in Co. Waterford, Minister of State for farm safety Martin Heydon said: “There is an inextricable link between the physical and mental wellbeing of farmers and farm safety.
“If a farmer feels run down or has a distracted mind, then their full focus cannot be on the task at hand. This can lead to near-misses, and the more near-misses there are the greater the chance of a fatal or life-changing incident,” he stressed.
The organisers of the FarmConnect programme believe the initiative will improve farmers’ decision making around their individual health and wellbeing.
Clare Thoma, the coordinator of the programme, commented: “Small, practical, positive changes to improve a farmer’s personal wellbeing also have positive outcomes for farm safety and productivity, so we deem it a win-win situation.”
She added: “Scientific and academic studies have highlighted serious concerns about Irish farmer ill-health and occupational injury. Recent research shows that Irish farmers are seven times more likely to die from heart diseases than salaried workers.”
Farmers in the Waterford and Roscommon areas who are interested in the programme can register or get more information through farmconnect.ie.