Agricultural colleges should offer separate classes in occupational health and safety training to their students, according to the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.
Glen Blahey, CASA chair, said farm operators need to understand this training as part of their human resource management.
“If there is no recognition of that, then there is a major gap in the programming.”
Blahey said business risk management should examine financial perspectives but also safety in the workplace and the costs of sick and injured workers.
CASA recently commissioned the George Morris Centre to study agricultural education programs across Canada. It found that most health and safety training is offered in technical and vocational schools as opposed to university programs.
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Graham Scoles, associate dean of the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources, said such training is not offered as a separate class but woven into a number of the courses offered at the Saskatoon campus.
Most students receive their training on the job, as summer students and in their post-graduate jobs, he said.
Scoles was not aware of any discussions within the college to establish specific courses, but he acknowledged the increasing importance of occupational health and safety in agricultural enterprises.
“It’s something worth considering,” he said.
Blahey said CASA will take the report’s findings to universities in the coming months to encourage them to offer such training programs as a half class or as a fundamental part of other courses.
The report noted farm health and safety is increasingly important as farm size increases and the number of employees grows.
CASA, a non-profit organization funded through Agriculture Canada, works to keep agriculture free of workplace injuries and illnesses. From 1990-2003, 1,547 people died from on-farm injuries according to the Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program.
