Int. J. Emerg. Sci.

, 1(2), 73-82, June 2011

ISSN: 2222-4254
IJES

Health and Safety in Agriculture and Food

Security Nexus

Samuel Toyin Olowogbon

Occupational Health and safety Division of Vertext Media Ltd,
Ibadan, Nigeria.
olowogbonsam@yahoo.com

Abstract. On a national scale, agricultural accidents place a great burden on

the economy, the efficiency of the workers is impeded and agricultural output
and productivity is reduced. The research assesses the implication of health
and safety in agriculture and food security nexus.100 respondents with
agriculture as primary occupation were randomly selected in Ibadan
metropolis, Nigeria. Health and work performance questionnaire (HPQ) and
interview schedule was for data collection. The result revealed that about 63%
of the respondents have been prevented from doing their work as a result of
occupational injuries and illness which leads to lost time injuries (LTI) ,
restricted work cases (RWC) and fatalities leading to production loss which
impedes food security. Hence, the need for formulation and implementation of
effective health and safety policy in Agriculture as well as encouraging record
keeping of injuries or accidents with performance review. These will in-turn
boost food security and living standard of the country.
Keywords: Agriculture, Food Security, Health and Safety

1 INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is a major stakeholder to food security issues. In order to ease the global
pressure on food security, Agriculture the main stay of most developing countries
must be properly developed and efficiently maximized. Agriculture as carried out
today is a dangerous occupation, with millions of workers sustaining injury and
death throughout the world.[1] The issue of health and safety in agriculture in a
developing nation like Nigeria is still at a lower ebb or non-existence despite the
fact that agriculture is still the mainstay of her economy in spite of its decline in the
70s due to oil boom. In terms of employment, agriculture is by far the most
important sector of Nigeria's economy, engaging about 70% of the labor force [2].
A greater fraction of the countrys population of over 140 million depends on
agriculture for their livelihood either directly or indirectly. But this sector is one
which there is a deep seated culture of unwise risk taking and lack of appreciation
of the role good health and safety management can play [3]. Farm workers are
exposed to hazard ranging from; chemical, physical, ergonomics, biological and
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Samuel Toyin Olowogbon

psychosocial hazards thereby

leading
to disorders and diseases like
carcinogenicity
(cancer
causing),
mutagenicity
(induce
mutations),
tetragenicity(affect the feotus), psychiatric disorder and delayed neuropathy, and the
dusts have been known to cause diseases ranging from Byssinosis, occupational
asthma, pneumonitis and non-specific Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
Disease(COPD)[1] and musculoskeletal disorder the list is endless. .
After construction, agricultural sector has the worst record for work related
fatalities and one of the worst for occupational ill health and injuries [3]. Nigeria
with little or no data on workers health and safety especially in the agricultural
sector probably because the workers are peasant and rural dwellers coupled with the
poor awareness on the role of health and safety to the development and productivity
of the sector.
According to ILO report in 2000, [4] it reveals that 170, 000(50.7%) agricultural
workers are killed each year from the total of 335, 000 in fatal workplace accidents
worldwide. Therefore special attention is needed for the health and safety of
agricultural workers, who constitute three quarters of the Nigerian working
population.
A healthy workforce is definitely one of the most important economic assets to
a nation .An unhealthy workforce is therefore an economic loss to a nation which in
turn affects the productivity and in this case food security[5]. At the individual
level, health can directly increase general output (e.g through reduced absenteeism,
injury and illnesses as well as improved morale and general work-well being.
Consequently, economists and historians have focused much attention on better
understanding of productivity determinants. There is an increasing awareness that
human capital is a key factor. Recently, however, increasing attention has been
given to health as a form of human capital[6]. Poor health state erodes human
capital and reduces resilience to shock and reduces productivity as well as impaired
physical and mental capacity[7].
1.1. Food Security and United Nations Millennium Development Goals (Mdgs)

Food is a necessity for human life. A human or any living thing can live without
any luxury of life but cannot survive without food; no wonder the issue of food is
tagged MDG1 on the UN Millennium Development Goals list. Progress on food
security and achieving MDG1 has been uneven geographically and between
population groups. Although there are food security challenges across the world,
most progress remains to be made in Africa and in countries in fragile situations [8].
According to the 2009 MDG Report nine [9], the proportion of undernourished
population in Sub-Saharan Africa, decreased from 32% (1990-92) to 29% in 2008.
This evidence revealed that Africa, including Nigeria is still far from reaching the
UN MDG target.

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International Journal of Emerging. Sciences, 1(2), 73-82, June 2011

1.2. Why Health and Safety in Agriculture?

Health and Safety has been identified to have a strong influence and invaluable to
any sector of the economy agriculture inclusive. Effective management of health
and safety can help deliver improved productivity and efficiency. Health and safety
has been tie to positive performance indicators (PPIs)[10]."Agriculture" covers not
only farming but also many other associated activities such as crop processing and
packaging, irrigation, pest management, grain storage, animal husbandry,
construction and domestic tasks (carrying water or fuel-wood, etc.). Agricultural
work and this is one of its distinguishing characteristics is carried out in a
rural environment where there is no clear-cut distinction between working and
living conditions. As agricultural work is carried out in the countryside, it is subject
to the health hazards of a rural environment as well as those inherent in the specific
work processes involved [11]. Due to the nature of the agricultural work, workers in
this sector are prone to many hazards, hence a need for health and safety in
Agriculture. Recent innovation in agriculture has added drastically to the dangers or
hazards faced by farm workers. The use of chemicals would expose them to
chemically related toxic material dangerous to health. The use or machinery exposes
them to excessive noise pollution, the cumulative effect of all these hazards
associated with new technologies would on a long run affect the wellbeing of these
workers, if effective health and safety programme is not put in place to mitigate the
effect of such hazards.
1.3. Economic Cost of Farm Injury and Fatality

According to Dr Pollock of Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety;

He revealed from his research that farm-related injury deaths cost the Australian
economy $651 million (2008 dollars) in the four years from 20012004. He further
explained The figure of $651 million equates to 2.7% of the 2008 farm gross
domestic product (GDP), however this is a conservative estimate, as there are many
other costs of a farm injury death that are unquantifiable, such as grief, emotional
loss, pain and suffering.[12] Meanwhile, other costs lack readily available and
accurate data sources, for example, loss of farm production, production delays,
machinery or equipment damage, insurance, taxation and community losses, the
researcher added If you add also the costs of long-term, permanent injuries and
serious injuries requiring hospitalization, the true cost of farm-related deaths and
injuries to the Australian economy would be considerably higher,[13].
If the cost burden could be so evident in a developed country what would the
case be in a developing country? According to Robert McKee, Chairman Conoco
(UK) Ltd. In his opinion Safety is, without doubt, the most crucial investment we
can make, and the question is not what it costs us, but what it saves. This implies
that effective health and safety programme has more benefit than the cost. The cost
incurred can either be direct or indirect. Direct cost are cost that has a direct
relationship with an incident or accident such as Workers compensation, accident
insurance, production losses, damage to plant and equipment e.t.c while the indirect

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Samuel Toyin Olowogbon

cost or hidden cost are those cost incurred from an accident with some hidden
implications, a such as time wasted, training cost, farm families and communities
are affected, emotionally from the death of a relative.
Consequently, there are many reasons for implementing health and safety as a
core division in agriculture, also known as managing farm safety programme The
following are the most common justifications:

(A)

Worker

Sickness absence, reduced morale

and effectiveness, injuries,
temporary or permanent
incapacitation, or fatality

(B) Co-Worker
(C) Workers Family
Decreased morale
and effectiveness

Psychological effect

(D) Direct Cost

(XYZ)

(E) Decrease output and

Medical bill,
Compensation, payment
for work not done,
replacement cost for
damaged equipment and
machinery, training and
other administrative cost

FARM ACCIDENTS

Production Loss

(F) Damage to Equipment

Animal

Indirect Cost
Cost of replacing injured
worker, Cost of training new
worker, Poor health and
Safety could lead to poor
public relations, and it takes
time for new worker to
adjust (Lost time)

Building
Machinery
Figure 1: Holistic effects of Farm Accidents

To reduce the economic cost incurred on prevented health and safety issues in
agriculture
Improve safety culture in agriculture
improve the productivity of farmers

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International Journal of Emerging. Sciences, 1(2), 73-82, June 2011

Assisting farmers to respond to the new industrial challenges in agriculture

Help in achieving food security
Increase the general turn over in agriculture
Helping agriculture to be a sustainable sector
Reduce the numbers of injured farm workers
Reduce damage to property
Reduce Lost Time Injuries and Restricted Work Cases
Produce a healthy agricultural work force
Assist farmers to have optimum access to health and safety information.

The above figure shows explicitly the effects and economic cost of farm
accidents. A-C shows the effect on the employee while D-F shows the effect on the
employer.
This study therefore seek to bring to the fore the relationship between health
and safety and the role health and safety management in attaining food security and
also intend to stimulate discussion and improvement in policy formulation and
implementation as it relates to health and safety and food security with improved
living standard.

2. RELATED WORK
Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries. Farmers are at high risk for
fatal and nonfatal injuries, work-related lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss,
skin diseases, and certain cancers associated with chemical use and prolonged sun
exposure. One of the difficulties in dealing with agriculture is that it is a very
complex and heterogeneous sector. It involves a number of specific situations which
vary from country to country and between developed and developing countries .Half
of the world labour force is employed in agriculture and an estimated 1.3 billion
workers are engaged in agricultural production worldwide. The share of the
agricultural labour force in the total economically active population is under 10 per
cent in developed countries and accounts for 59 per cent of workers in the less
developed regions. [14]. Agriculture which in the current context includes, farming,
arboriculture, horticulture, fish farming and of increasing significance, with the
introduction of public rights to roam legislation, amenity use of the countryside.
Although employment has steadily been declining, the industry has remained a
priority for HSE because of its notoriously poor injury record. It has the worst fatal
injury rate of any major employment sector which for 2007-08 stands at 9.7 deaths
per 100,000 workers. During the last decade the fatal injury rate has fluctuated
between 7.7 and 11.3 per 100,000 workers, approaching nearly 10 times the allindustry rate. The principal causes of fatal accidents are common to all sectors of
the industry transport, falls from height and being struck by an object. Agriculture
is also an industry with a poor record of occupational health though, as in other
sectors, the statistical base is weak, provides limited intelligence and is currently the
subject of further HSE-commissioned research. The latest survey of self-reported

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Samuel Toyin Olowogbon

work-related illness (SWI) carried out in 2007/08 estimated that 18 000 people
whose current or most recent job in the last year was in the agriculture, hunting,
forestry and fishing industry suffered from an illness which was caused or made
worse by this job [15].

3. METHODOLOGY
The study was carried out in Ibadan metropolis in Oyo State, Nigeria. The state has
thirty-three Local Government Areas. Its population is 1,338,659 according to
census results for 2006.With Coordinates 72347N, 3550E and Area
1,189.2 sq mi (3,080 km2). Ibadan has a tropical wet and dry climate, with a
lengthy wet season and relatively constant temperatures throughout the course of
the year. Ibadans, wet season runs from March through October, though August
sees somewhat of a lull in precipitation. This lull nearly divides the wet season into
two different wet seasons. The remaining months forms the citys dry season. Like a
good portion of West Africa, Ibadan experiences the harmattan between the months
of November and February. Agriculture is the main occupation of the people of Oyo
State. The climate in the state favours the cultivation of crops like maize, yam,
cassava, millet, rice, plantains, cocoa, palm produce, cashew etc [16], [17] .Data
were obtained using a health and work performance questionnaire coupled with
structured interview schedule, administered to 100 respondents with agriculture as
the primary occupation. These respondents were randomly selected from the faming
population in the area; this was supplemented with secondary data from reports,
publications and internet. Simple statistics such as mean, mode, percentages and
frequency, charts and lost time injury frequency analysis index were used for the
data analysis.

4.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1. Results

Demographic characteristics

Frequency

Percentage %

30
40
30

30
40
30

80
20

80
20

Age (years)
20-30
31-40
>40
Sex
Males
Females

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International Journal of Emerging. Sciences, 1(2), 73-82, June 2011

Marital Status
Single
Married

20
80

20
80

40
40
20

40
40
20

No formal education
Primary

30
50

30
50

Secondary

20

20

40
60

40
60

Yes

35

35

No

65

65

Religion
Christianity
Islam
Traditional

Educational background

Hazard Awareness
Yes
No

PPE usage

The above table reveals that 80% of the respondents are male signifying a male
dominated occupation, with a modal age group of 31-40 which denote age range of
vigour and strength. The highest level of education from the respondents is
secondary school certification which implies that they have little or no formal
education which has be proven to have a strong tie to adoption of innovation and
modern practices. The study revealed that 60% of the respondents are not aware of
any inherent hazard in agriculture, this connote the fact that health and safety in
agriculture as it relates to occupational health and safety is at a lower ebb is the
country hence a need for awareness campaign.
4.1. HPQ questions response.

Statistics of respondents that have experienced one form of discomfort in the past
12 months related to their occupation

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Samuel Toyin Olowogbon

NO OF PEOPLE WITH INJURY

INJURY FREQUENCY
100
80
60
40
Series1

20
0

INJURY TYPE
Figure 2. Injury Frequency

Figure 2 reveals that 80% of the respondents had wrist/hand injury, 75% had
had lower back pain and 55% knee injury in the last 12 months resulting
resulting from their
job which shows that occupational injury in agriculture is prominent, which
probably due to the poor awareness level of stakeholders in the sector to identifying
the roles that health and safety can play in maximizing productivity.
Statistics
tics of respondents that have at any time during the last 12 months been
prevented from doing their work because of discomfort in their body part.

No of peopele with injury

LOST TIME INJURY INDEX

100

50

INJURY TYPE
Figure 3. Lost time injury index

Based on a growing relationship between health and productivity which in this

case is food security of agricultural productivity. Figure 3 reveals that 80% of the
respondents have been prevented from doing their job as a result of wrist/hand
injury and 75% have been also prevented as a result of lower back injury. These
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International Journal of Emerging. Sciences, 1(2), 73-82, June 2011

occupational injuries have resulted in LTI and RWC which has reduced productivity
thereby impeding food security.
5.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To protect these workers for a healthier agricultural sector and a guaranteed food
security. The following should be put in place:
Formulation and Implementation of health and safety policies in Agriculture
in Nigeria
Workers in agriculture should be educated/trained on agricultural hazards and
means of prevention
Awareness on usage and the Provision of Personal Protective
Equipment(PPE) for workers ranging from hang cloves, coveralls, footwear,
ear muffs etc.
Extension agents, cooperative societies, trade unions should be equipped with
accurate information so that they can enlighten farmers on the hazards.
Provision of basic infrastructures to the rural dwellers which are mostly
farmers.
First aid education for farmers in case of acute injury or illness.
Integration of occupational health in to primary health care since this will
bring the information nearer to the target group.
Proper record keeping on agricultural health and safety should be encouraged.
Conclusively, Health they say is wealth for maximum productivity and
development of the sector, health and safety of the workers needed to be addressed.
Nigerian populace depends on agriculture for their livelihood either directly or
indirectly. Poor health and safety leads to lost time injuries or lost workman-days
and restricted work case which will definitely impedes productivity and poor
productivity in agriculture in-turn impedes food security. Therefore, making the
health and safety of these workers in agriculture a focal point, will not just boost the
sectors productivity, or increased food production and sustainability or Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) but leads to food security and a healthy society. We need
a healthy agricultural working force for the nations food security.

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3. Chris Ide (2008): Pastoral care, Safety Health Practitioner Magazine, Nov 2008 published
by United Media
4. B.F Oluwagbemi (2007) Basic Occupational Health and Safety : published by Vertext
Media Limited,Ibadan. .

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Samuel Toyin Olowogbon

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2005.www.commonwealthfund.org/usr doc/856 Davis hlt productivity US workers
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