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Farmers urged to be inquisitive about farm health and safety
Tom Curran, Teagasc Head of Advisory Services, has called on farmers to emphasize health and safety when consulting with advisors. He made his call at the Teagasc Moorepark Dairy Open Day, where the importance of farm health and safety was emphasized.
Tom Curran's call comes after the publication of a study on advisors' intention to discuss farm safety. The research was conducted as part of the Teagasc Be Safe project studying farmer behavioral safety.
The study established that farmers generally do not emphasize farm safety as an important aspect of their farm work and they do not ask for support from their advisor with this aspect of farm management. Consequently, advisors hesitate to address farm health and safety as they perceive that farmers do not consider it a matter of importance.
Dr. Mohammad Mohammadrezaei, the lead author of the study, explained that "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, Teagasc Health and Safety Specialist advisor, and study co-author, said that 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.
Dr. David Meredith, Teagasc Research Officer and Be Safe project leader, said that 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 dialog between farmers and their advisors on implementation of positive health and safety measures on farms.
The paper 'Subjective norms influence advisors' reluctance to discuss farm health and safety' has been published in the The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension.
More information: Mohammad Mohammadrezaei et al, Subjective norms influence advisors' reluctance to discuss farm health and safety, The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension (2022). DOI: 10.1080/1389224X.2022.2125410
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