A new farm safety project, Farmers4Safety, will establish a network of trained farm safety mentors and embed farm safety, health and wellbeing in discussion groups.

The project adopts a peer-to-peer mentoring approach that investigates farmers and farm families’ behaviours and attitudes towards farm safety, health and wellbeing.

It aims to change the norm around farm safety and emotional wellbeing, so that it becomes a normal and sustained part of farming culture in Ireland while making the sector safer for those who live, work and visit farms.

Irish Rural Link (IRL), in partnership with the Biodiversity Regeneration in a Dairying Environment (BRIDE) project, the Duncannon Blue Flag Farming and Communities Scheme, the New Futures Farming Group, and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) are carrying out this piloted project in their catchment areas.

Seamus Boland, CEO of Irish Rural Link, said that each year too many avoidable fatalities and accidents occur on farms across the country, leaving families devastated and without livelihoods.

“We hope the peer-to-peer mentoring and training of this project will help reduce these numbers and ensure that the family farm can become a safer place to work.”

Niamh Nolan, project manager, said this project “engages with farmers and farm families on the ground in order to change their attitudes and behaviors, not only towards safety on farms but also towards looking after their own health and wellbeing.”

Familiarity

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Martin Heydon, said farmers and their families are the most powerful advocates we have for a change in culture around farm safety, health and wellbeing.

“Too often, familiarity can lead to farmers becoming accustomed to risks on their farms, risks our families and peers might spot, including signs of issues around health and wellbeing. I am delighted my department has been able to fund this project, as I believe there is huge capacity for farmers to learn from one another to make their farms safer places and to improve their health and wellbeing.

“This Farm Safety EIP Agri Project is one of the eight projects piloting innovative approaches to farm health, safety and wellbeing, focused on encouraging a bottom up approach to behaviour change among farmers in relation to farm safety.”