Agri Aware, Ireland's agri-food education body, has been awarded a government contract to run its Farm Safety First programme in second-level schools this year, with an option to extend it annually up to 2031, Agriland reports.
Eight people under 18 died on Irish farms in the past decade, all in incidents involving farm vehicles, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. That is far fewer than the 74 child and teenage deaths in the 1980s, but the department said "eight fatalities are eight too many".
Agriculture minister Martin Heydon said the programme would educate students "at an age when many of them are becoming more involved in farm work". Niall Collins, Minister of State for farm safety, encouraged schools and teachers to take it up, saying everyone has a role in promoting best practice and discouraging risk-taking.
Agri Aware chair Shay Galvin said the programme gives teachers classroom resources plus a practical element of in-person workshops and farm visits, focused on the dangers around machinery and livestock, to build good habits early and reduce accidents in future.
Photo: El Pollock / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Agriland
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