Emerging work health and safety impacts on farmers
Project status: Active
How can farmers handle WHS in a world with a rapidly changing climate?
Agricultural communities face many unique challenges including the often-isolating nature of their work and the disparate businesses they need to work with to distribute their produce.
But one modern factor that is having an overwhelming impact on farmer wellbeing, health and safety is an increasingly variable climate that has forced them into new ways of working.
With a shift to more sustainable land practices, there are a lot of ramifications that need to be considered when supporting the WHS of farming communities. Key areas of concern are the mental health and resilience of farmers, and potential new physical risks, when facing ongoing natural disasters, new financial stresses, and labour difficulties as a direct result of a changing climate.
Preparing for the future of farming
A horizon scan conducted by the Centre highlighted these four approaches for farmers adapting to change:
- Farming diversification
- Farm ownership and management models
- Technological advancements in farming
- Regenerative farming
In partnership with the Institute of Sustainable Futures (University of Technology Sydney), we have undertaking research to explore how sustainable farming practices may offer co-benefits when it comes to the prevention of work health and safety harm amongst farmers.
Working with farming communities, we are aiming to develop a suite of solutions that will simultaneously help to benefit farmer health and safety, business productivity, and the environment.
Stay tuned for the evidence-based interventions that come off the back of this research.
Further reading
- Centre for WHS Horizon Scan: Emerging WHS Impacts on Farmers
- Arnautovska, U., McPhedran, S., Kelly, B., Reddy, P., & De Leo, D. (2016), Geographic variation in suicide rates in Australian farmers: Why is the problem more frequent in Queensland than in New South Wales?
Want to know more?
To work with the Centre, or stay up to date with our research, head to our Engage with us page.