Farm machineries constitute the leading cause of farm accidents in agriculture.  This means that farmers and farm workers must do their best to abide by health and safety rules of handling these farm equipment. 

Leading Causes of Fatal Agricultural Related Accidents

• Farm machines
• Motor Vehicles 
• Drowning

Safety Tips for Handling Farm Equipment

1. Use the Manual

Many folks get on a tractor or start using farm equipment, without even considering the equipment manual. For many, observing others while using such equipment is enough education for them. This shouldn’t be. Many farm accidents could have been prevented if someone read the equipment manual.

For farm tractors and adjunct farm implements, they have manuals that have health and safety guides for how to handle them. This is the first step to safely handling all agricultural equipment: read the manual. The irony is that it won’t take 10 minutes to completely digest all the manual content, and these 10 minutes can save one from months of agony and/or pain caused by a farm accident.

2. Maintain Your Equipment Properly

One way to make farm implements become dangerous is to poorly maintain them. Clean, lubricate, check fluid levels and carry out all other maintenance procedures for your agricultural equipment as often as possible. Before mounting your tractor or using your other farm implements, ensure you have done your routine checks and ensure the equipment is in good condition.

3. Check your PTO Shaft

Farmers and farm workers need to give adequate attention to PTO (Power Take-Off) and Power Take-Off drive shaft. Year on year, there are records of severe injuries and deaths because of accidents related to the PTO. 

The Power Take Off shaft is the mechanical device used to transfer power from the tractor engine to the attached farm implement. The PTO related accidents are common because they are not attached with guards or in other cases, the PTO shift is damaged. Don’t fall victim to this, the secret is to check regularly. Once you notice an anomaly, the OAW store has replacement shields available you can browse through, on request.

4. Use The Right Implement For The Right Job

In certain areas, it is usual practice for farmers or farm workers to use a farm implement for other uses they are not meant for. This is one of the things that makes farm implements go bad quickly or even become dangerous to the user. 

Using the right farm equipment for the right job ensures increased effectiveness in farm operations.

5. Wear The Correct Safety Gear

Many Nigerian farmers wear whatever they feel like wearing to the farm, as long as they feel comfortable in the outfit. Yes, you should only farm in comfortable outfits, but there are equipment-specific gears farmers and farm workers have to wear when operating a farm machine. Usually your equipment manual will have in it the kind of gear you need for it. 

However, some general gear you should wear are safety boots, hand protection, ear and eye defenders. You should also make sure not to wear loose clothing and shoe laces. You should also pack long hair securely. They can get caught in the moving parts of a working machine.