A Study on Occupational Safety Practices among Rural Farmers in Ile-ife Area of Osun State, Nigeria: an Emphasis on Relevant Training Needs

This study investigated the occupational safetypractices among smallholder farmers in Ile-Ife area of Osun State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 220 randomly selected farmers using pre-tested and validated structured interview schedule. Information was collected on demographic, socio-economic characteristics and safety practices of the respondents. The data were summarized using frequency counts and percentages. The relationships between the variables were tested with the use of Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation whilefactor analysiswas used to identifythe factors influencing the safetypractices of the farmers. The results revealed that majority of the farmers do not use safetygears duringtheir participation in the various from operations. The reasons advanced include cost of procurement and non-use of the safetydevices by their mentors during their training. Seven factors that could explain 64.45% of variation in safety practices were identified. The factors and their percent variance are reasons for non-use of safety gears (16.69%), years of farming experience (13.39%),available information (9.59%), association membership (7.27%), attitude towards occupational safety (6.06%), training acquired by farmers (5.59%) and knowledge of death or accidents resulting from farm activities (5.30%). The study concluded that a serious training need for the farmers on safetyapparently emerged in the study area. The study recommended that extension agents should emphasize and train farmers on the social and economic importance of safety on farm in their package to farmers.