Occupational Health and Safety in Agriculture

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN AGRICULTURE
Occupational health and safety in agriculture
Name of the student:
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1OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN AGRICULTURE
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Identify OHS: Accidents in agricultural industry:...........................................................................3
Review of literature:........................................................................................................................6
Fatal accidents of the agricultural sector:....................................................................................6
Contributing factors behind the fatal accidents:..........................................................................8
Awareness among the agricultural workforce:..........................................................................10
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................12
Summary:.......................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................16
References:....................................................................................................................................17

2OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN AGRICULTURE
Introduction:
Close to 42.22% of the total land of New Zealand can be attributed to agricultural land;
hence inevitably, a large considerable workforce of the nation can be attributed to the farmers.
However, it has to be mentioned that the importance of the agricultural workforce contribute a
significant to the total GDP of the nation and hence there is need for this workforce to be safe
and functional. It has to be mentioned in this context that there are various occupational health
and safety risks that are prevalent in the agricultural sector, and a vast majority of them are fatal
accidents leading to various critical and life threatening injuries (Van den Broucke & Colémont,
2011).
Hence, it has to be mentioned in this context that agriculture has significant risks to
health and safety of the workforce employed in this field. Now, occupational health and safety
has acknowledged the agricultural industry to be one of the most hazardous occupational sectors.
According to the recent report, a large number of agricultural workers have to suffer from
different occupational accidents and ill health every year. It has to be mentioned that agricultural
sectors provides the most of the basic necessities of life, hence the demands of the agriculture
industry is also extremely high as well (Asfaw, Pana-Cryan & Rosa, 2011). Hence close to a
billion workers are employed in the agricultural sector worldwide, contributing to more than one
third of the entire labour force of the world. Although, it has to be mentioned in this context as
well, that this occupational sector also accounts for more than 70% of the entire child labour of
the world. With the agricultural sector being one of the most hazardous one, the risk for fatal
accidents are even higher for the children associated with this workforce (Fathallah, 2010). This
assignment will attempt to research and explore the risk of fatal accidents in the agricultural

3OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN AGRICULTURE
sectors and the occupational health and safety risk of the agricultural workforce, and would like
to conclude with a set of occupational health and safety recommendations to minimize the
accident risks with respect to the New Zealand demographics.
Identify OHS: Accidents in agricultural industry:
Among all the economic sectors, agriculture is one of the most hazardous of all. With the
higher rates of injuries, accidental deaths, and work-related diseases or illness, the agriculture
sector is the most unsafe sector to work in. The sector places the workers at potential risks of
work-related accidents and musculoskeletal disorders. Working with trunk bendings, lifting and
carrying heavy loads, risking from trips or falls at uneven walkways, vibrations from farm
vehicles and chainsaws are some of the main hazards that result in higher risks of accidents in
the agricultural sector (Botha et al., 2014).The importance of agriculture is immense due to its
contribution to the social, political, cultural and economic sector of the world. Hence, improving
health and safety at the agricultural workplace is essential. According to the occupational health
and safety act, each and every worker in the workplace is subject to mental, social and physical
wellbeing. The safety and health of Agricultural convention 2001(No. 184) and ILO
recommendation provides further guidance on appropriate strategies to improve and meet the
OSH accidental risks that are common in the agriculture sector (Neal, 2017).Some of the major
forms of accidents in the agricultural sectors of New Zealand are Tracker accidents, Quad bike
accidents and accidents by All-terrain vehicles.
The below figure explains the rate of accidents in different sectors of employment in New
Zealand from 2011 to 2017.The indigo blue line explains the highest rate of workplace-related
accidents in the agricultural sector due to Quad bikes.

4OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN AGRICULTURE
Figure: 1 Source: (Klingelschmidt et
al., 2018)
According to the WorkSafe data, the
deadliest industry of New Zealand is
the agricultural industry (Schweder et
al.,2015).With a high number of
death rates in the past six years, the
agricultural industry of New Zealand is the most threatening and risky industry. The causes of
the fatalities have been increasing throughout and questioning the OSH norms in the agricultural
sector.

5OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN AGRICULTURE
Figure: 2 Source: (Anderson & Tipples, 2014)
The above figure is an example of the increased number of death caused due to quad bike
accidents on various agricultural farms of New Zealand. Exposure to hazardous chemicals and
heavy machineries constitute one of the main risk in the occupation at this sector. Accidents in
this sector affects the working environment and the personal lives of the victims. The cost of
accidents in the agriculture sector are associated with high rates of injuries and workplace related
ill health (Lilley,Lower & Davie, 2017).The accidents have negative effects on the workplace
environment and on the production of the agricultural farms. Some of the major hazards in
agricultural farm of New Zealand are transmissible animal disease, exposure to toxic and
hazardous chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers and ergonomic hazards in the agricultural farm.
The OSH problem of workplace accidents in the agricultural farms of New Zealand has
been chosen in this paper since it is one of the most neglected sectors of employment in the
nation. Most of the agricultural farm employ people from rural areas, child, and old aged people
are more prone to fatal accidents in the farm due to higher working hours, exposure to hazardous
and dangerous conditions and risky work levels. Illiteracy and poverty are the main causes
people join agricultural farms. Besides, this sector of New Zealand is the largest sector for
female employment. The OSH standards that have been affecting the women employers have
been neglected and underestimated throughout these years (Anderson & Tipples, 2014). This