The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is to call for an industry coalition on health and safety after new figures revealed agriculture has the highest fatality rate of any industrial sector.

The annual provisional workplace fatality statistics released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reveal there are around 45 deaths on farms every year.

NFU president Peter Kendall described HSE chairman Judith Hackitt’s presentation to the NFU Council on the stats as “a chilling and timely reminder of the dangers of farming”.

Kendall said: “The NFU notes the latest workplace fatality statistics with considerable sadness as there is a tragic story that sits behind each one of the numbers. Any fatal accident or serious injury has a devastating impact on the families and businesses involved.

“In the coming months NFU Council agreed that the NFU should host a Farm Safety Summit and invite other industry leaders to participate in a coalition that spreads a culture of safer working. Farmers, growers and their staff will be working long hours this summer, often alone.

“We’ve already started to remind our members to take care but as harvest gets underway, we will step this up and continue to support the HSE efforts to minimise farm deaths especially through the Come Home Safe campaign,” he added.

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