Promoting Farmer occupational safety and health (OSH) services through Extension

Strategies for improving OSH in European agriculture are urgently required given thehigh level of reported injuries and ill health in the sector. The agriculture sector in Europe isenormous in scale and diverse in production systems. A dispersed labour force is deployed in thesector, predominantly using family labour, which is self-employed. Accordingly, a largeproportion of the agricultural workforce is outside the scope of EU directives on occupationalsafety and health (OSH).The aim of this paper is to examine the role and engagement of thediscipline of agricultural extension in promoting OSH in agriculture and consider methodologiesthat this discipline can use most effectively to gain OSH adoption. The paper compares regulatoryand extension approaches to consider their respective roles in promoting OSH in agriculture. EUdevelopments related to extension and OSH are then outlined. Regarding extension engagement,findings of a survey among extension and OSH professionals throughout Europe found that OSHis considered an important topic and worthwhile for inclusion in extension but it indicates thatcurrently the level of extension programming is limited. Irish data on OSH extensionmethodologies indicates that advisors consider that a range of extension approaches are availableto motivate farmers on OSH adoption with TV victim testimonials, on-farm social learningdiscussion groups and on-farm demonstrations having the highest preferences. Data presentedindicates that Irish farmers expressed good satisfaction ratings with OSH extension relevance totheir farms. Overall, the study advocates giving more consideration of the role of extension inpromoting agricultural OSH.