The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association has $591,000 this year to distribute to projects that make farming less hazardous.
CASA executive director Marcel Hacault said the board wants to give the money to projects that target youth, communicate the safety message or train people working in agriculture.
“Statistics we have show the pre-school (age) and older farmers over 60 are where the accident spikes happen.”
Hacault said last year CASA helped the Prairie Swine Centre develop materials for youth education. Youth is a continuing priority, he added. For example, this year CASA will focus will on communications material for young farm workers aged 15-29.
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Another priority area is engineering intervention, which means a change in a machine or process that “reduces hazards so an accident can’t happen in the first place.”
Other priorities include farm safety audits, best management practices for agricultural safety and initiatives that target mental health and stress resulting from farming.
“Local, regional, provincial or national groups are encouraged to submit projects,” Hacault said.
“These projects must respond to a priority, must have a matching cash or in-kind component and must be completed by March 31, 2006.”
For this year, the deadlines for proposals will be June 15 and Oct. 31, with approval about six weeks after submission. Last year CASA approved 31 projects and Hacault expects a similar number for 2005.
