Slovakia Farm Safety: Transforming Attitudes for Sustainable Agriculture

Farm health and safety (FHS) in Slovak agriculture is often deprioritized despite its critical role in long-term productivity, worker health, and economic stability. This technical note, authored by Miriam Acsova and Dominika Pancakova at Slovakia’s Bioeconomy Cluster, advocates reframing FHS as integral to sustainable farm management. It identifies key challenges and proposes four actionable strategies: integrating FHS into education and vocational training, delivering context-specific training, co-creating sector-specific regulations with farmers and policymakers, and launching awareness campaigns using visual tools. The note emphasizes that FHS reduces accidents, medical costs, and downtime, and calls for impact studies, practical tool distribution, and stakeholder forums to sustain momentum. Funded by the European Union, the initiative promotes alignment between safety and economic viability to strengthen farm resilience.