Emerging work health and safety impacts on farms online survey report

Background

Researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ISF) and the Centre for Work Health and Safety (the Centre) are carrying out a project to understand emerging work health and safety (WHS) risks to farming communities in New South Wales from changes to on-farm practices and the enterprise mix on farms.

This report outlines the findings of an online survey, utilised to identify examples of agricultural sub-sectors where changing practices may cause a change in their WHS risk profile and to help the research team to select case study sites for in-depth interviews and further exploration in the next phase of the project. The survey asked about changed and novel practices, impacts on WHS related to the changes that have been made on-farm, and any proposed changes for the future. The survey also explored how farming communities access information to inform their on-farm decision making.

Findings

Participation in the survey was lower than expected, potentially due to survey fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 96 participants completed the survey with 75 of these being associated with farms in NSW.

Majority of respondents were male, between 30 and 50 years old, with 5-10 years of experience and working as a farm manager, worker, owner operator or contractor. Majority were from livestock (including dairy) and broadacre cropping sectors on the north coast and peri-urban Sydney areas and tended to rate both their farm profitability and their general personal health and stress levels as excellent. Only 9 participants reported an accident or near miss and these were mainly related to falls, vehicles and animal interactions. Very few participants had undertaken WHS training or had WHS plans in place. Similarly, only 10 participants reported having made changes to their on-farm practise and 6 reported having moved on to non-agricultural uses of their land. Majority of participants reported that they mainly rely on their own internal capacity, their records, and their management systems to make business decisions and to reduce WHS risks

Interestingly, additional analysis of the subset of participants who had made changes on their farm identified that these participants did not report their farm profitability as “excellent” and 70% rated it as “poor” or “fair”. Moreover, 7 of the participants who reported accidents or near misses belonged to this subset.

The low survey response rate does not allow for statistical testing and it is therefore not possible to determine the relationships between profitability, changes on-farm, and WHS risk and incidence. These trends are nevertheless worthy of further investigation.

Conclusion

The survey findings were insufficient to support the identification of examples of agricultural sub-sectors where changing practices may cause a change in their WHS risk profile and case study sites for in-depth interviews and further exploration.

Consequently, in the next phase of the project, the research team will supplement these findings with additional qualitative data collection. Interviews (up to 5) will be conducted with key informants and other network contacts about their awareness of various changes of on-farm practices across the state.

Read the full report (PDF, 660.29 KB).