Economics of farm safety: The Nigerian scenario

Investing in farm safety is a win-win game. Apart from improving the financial bottom line of a farm business, it increases and improves the labour productivity of farm workers, which in turn improve agricultural sector. Consequently, agricultural accidents place a great burden on the economy resulting in reduced return on investment (ROI) in agriculture and the burden of injuries/illness (BOI) is increased. This impedes efficiency of the workers, decreased agricultural output and profitability. The dearth of information on the economic relationship of farm safety and ROI, especially in agriculture with focus on a developing country like Nigeria stimulated this research by assessing the economic implication of farm safety practices on agriculture in Nigeria. 100 respondents with agriculture as primary occupation were randomly selected from farming households in Ibadan, Nigeria. Health and work performance questionnaire (HPQ), work limitation questionnaire and interview schedule were adopted for data collection. The research revealed that about 80 and 75 % of the respondents had severe wrist/hand injury and lower back pain, respectively which are work related. 63 % of the respondents on average have been prevented from doing their work as a result of occupational injuries and illness which leads to lost time, restricted work cases and fatalities leading to production loss. Also, 80 % of the respondents do not use any form of personal protective equipment (PPE). Inadequate information and awareness coupled with cost implication were ranked highest on the farm safety adoption constraint list. Thus, information dissemination on farm safety, a subsidized well implemented farm safety programme and farm accident record keeping are recommended