Teagasc will host an international conference on farm safety and farmer wellbeing from 23 August to 25 August at the Teagasc Research and Innovation Centre, Dunsany, Grange, Co Meath, and Teagasc, Ashtown, Dublin 15.

Thirty papers will be delivered over the course of three days covering three topics; farm safety, policy and culture and farmer wellbeing.

Participants will also visit Teagasc facilities at Grange and Ashtown to view safety demonstrations.

There will be a visit to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s facilities at Backweston, Co Kildare, where participants will hear from policy stakeholders and tour the facilities.

Presentations

There will be three keynote presentations delivered over the course of the conference from experts such as Professor Julie A Sorensen of the New York Centre for Agricultural Medicine and Health, Professor Peter Lundqvist of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Professor Alison Kennedy, director of the National Centre for Farmer Health, Australia.

These presentations will focus on understanding why people engage in safe and unsafe practices, the challenges to farmer mental health and wellbeing and how these challenges can be met.

Speaking in advance of the conference, leader of the Department of Agriculture-sponsored BeSAFE (farm safety behaviours) project Dr David Meredith said: “Ireland is at the forefront of undertaking and leading research into farm safety and farmer health and the conference is an opportunity to showcase issues and approaches that we are currently working on.

Research

"We are also keen to show how this research makes an impact, whether that be on a farm or supporting policy or strategy development, by working with farmers, advisers and policy stakeholders,” he added.

Dr Meredith stated that the conference allows those interested in the issue of farm safety or farmer health to learn from the knowledge and experiences of researchers from across the EU, Australia and the USA.

There are a limited number of places available at the conference, which is organised as part of the BeSAFE project. BeSAFE is led by Teagasc in partnership with colleagues in University College Dublin and Galway University.

Anyone interested in attending is asked to email Dr Mohammad Mohammdrezaei at Mohammad.Mohammadrezaei@teagasc.ie to make a reservation.