In Puglia, fatal accidents in agriculture are equal to 11.3% of the national total, while reports of occupational diseases reach 14%, a sad record for the region with a strong agricultural vocation which needs greater tools for job protection in agriculture. This is what emerges from the INAIL Report of March 2024 which analyzed reports of fatal accidents and occupational diseases in agricultural management by region in the five-year period 2018–2022.
To modernize the agricultural machinery fleet and make work in the countryside safer, the IT procedure for completing applications for contributions for projects to improve health conditions is open until 30 May 2024. and worker safety and to support the purchase by micro and small agricultural enterprises of new and innovative machinery and work equipment to significantly reduce polluting emissions, improve performance and sustainability and reduce noise levels or risks of accidents, with non-repayable financing of 65% for the majority of agricultural businesses (70 million) and 80% for young farmers aged under 41 (20 million).
To activate more effective inter-institutional synergies for the strengthening of health surveillance, an agreement was signed between the Prefecture of Bari, the ASL, the Bari-Bat Metropolitan Area Labor Inspectorate, and CIMALA EBAT Bari e Bat, the Bilateral Agricultural Territorial Body, with the aim of triggering a dynamic advancement in the implementation of the health surveillance to which agricultural businesses are required, taking into account both the peculiar characteristics of agricultural work and the tasks that fall within it, and the profile of seasonality that affects agricultural work.
Being directed at workers who carry out manual activities, therefore carried out in the absence of specific machines and equipment, which expose them to risks linked to the manual handling of loads, to incongruous postures continued for significant times, to the execution of repeated movements with effects mainly on load on the spine and limbs and risks such as exposure to the sun’s rays and extreme microclimatic conditions, and given that the work activity takes place mainly outdoors, health surveillance must be aimed with particular attention to the analysis of the musculoskeletal system.
It is important to encourage innovation to guarantee an increasingly high level of safety at work in agriculture, but much still remains to be done and for this reason it is necessary to continue decisively on the path undertaken with interventions for simplification, transparency, technological innovation and training, which are able to accompany companies in the ongoing prevention effort. This is why the resources that INAIL makes available to agricultural companies to renew and modernize the fleet of machinery currently in circulation are important.
