Prevention
Under the Farmers’ Social Insurance Act, KRUS is required to take action to prevent accidents at work and to prevent agricultural occupational diseases.
The Fund’s prevention activity involves examining the causes and circumstances of accidents at work and disseminating knowledge of accident hazards in the agricultural work environment and the “Principles of the protection of health and life on a farm” established by the President of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund. This document, updated in 2020, contains recommendations on handling farm equipment, safeguarding those working on the farm and the manner in which farming activities should be performed. The employees of the Fund try to convince the farmers to apply them voluntarily. The rules are disseminated to the insured farmers, i.a. in the form of a brochure and outreach materials, as well as during training, lectures, competitions, demonstrations of safe work, inspections of accident sites, via the media and during other preventive activities. The above document is available in three language versions: English, Russian and Ukrainian.
The Agricultural Social Insurance Fund organizes voluntary, free training courses and lectures for farmers, village administrators, members of the Country Women’s Associations, farmers undergoing treatment at KRUS Farmers’ Rehabilitation Centres, local governments, agricultural school students and children from rural areas. In the years 2012-2022 over 43.6 thousand training meetings were held which were attended by over 1.5 million people. In 2011, on the KRUS website www.gov.pl/krus the application entitled “Calendar of Preventive Events” was launched, which is used to disseminate information about preventive activities undertaken by the Fund. In order to promote the rules of safe work on a farm, the Fund issued a range of outreach materials, including: films, brochures, leaflets, posters, roll-ups and prevention calendars, and for children: jigsaw puzzles, a “memory” game, a family board game “Safe with Krusław” and an e-learning course called “It’s safe in the countryside – we prevent falls”. The modern and attractive form of the course introduces the youngest rural inhabitants to the accident hazards on a farm, and teaches them how to behave correctly when being in the farmyard.
As part of non-training activities, various types of OSH knowledge olympiads, contests and quizzes, and competitions for the safest farm are organised. Since 2003, the National Competition “Safe Farm” has been organised, with approximately 1,000 farms participating every year. Its purpose is to promote the rules of health and life protection on farms, as well as to promote good practices related to occupational health and safety in rural areas. Every year the President of the Republic of Poland holds the honorary patronage over the Competition. The implementation of the project is supported by local governments: volunteer fire brigades, police, local chambers of agriculture, agricultural advisory centres, farmers’ professional and social organisations, scientific and research institutes working to improve work safety on farms, producers of agricultural machinery and equipment, as well as a number of companies and institutions. The competition takes place in three stages and, according to the criteria specified in the regulations, regional and voivodship committees assess farms in terms of: organisation of the farmyard; order within the yard, buildings and work stations; technical condition of livestock and farm buildings; technical condition of machines, devices and tools used in farms; livestock handling and living conditions; provision of work clothes and personal protective equipment; methods of storing plant protection products and other hazardous substances; farm aesthetics; as well as application of organisational, technological and technical solutions affecting the safety of people working and staying on farms.
In 2011, the first edition of the National Art Competition for Children “Safe in the Countryside” took place, with over 40,000 children from over 3,500 primary schools participating every year. The event is organised under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The purpose of the competition is to promote positive behaviour related to the children’s work and play on the farm among primary school pupils from rural areas, as well as to promote the “List of particularly dangerous activities related to operating a farm, which must not be entrusted to children under 16 years of age”, indicating the types of work, which, due to the risks involved in their performance, are extremely dangerous to the youngest.
The Fund, implementing the Vision Zero Strategy in the agricultural sector in Poland*, organised in 2022 the fourth edition of the National Competition for the Youth “My Vision Zero”, consisting in shooting a short preventive movie related to the subject of the competition. The competition aims to promote among young people, in particular students of secondary schools and agricultural university students, safe behaviour related to working on a farm. The project is organised under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
From 2020, two competitions are held: the National Farm Safety Rhyme Contest for Children and the National Farm Safety Test Contest. The Fund also undertakes efforts to secure proper manufacturing and distribution of safe technical equipment for agriculture, as well as protective equipment and clothing. Products with the above-average level of safety are awarded by the President of KRUS the “Safety Mark of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund”, and those which improve safety at work are awarded the fair distinction “Product Increasing Work Safety on a Farm”. By the end of 2022, 36 manufacturers of 241 products were entitled to use the KRUS Safety Mark, and 58 suppliers were awarded the fair distinction for 72 products. Since 2001, the manufacturers of the above-mentioned products have been awarded the “DOBROSŁAW” statuette. In addition, the Fund conducts recourse and preventive proceedings aimed at the return of paid benefits and changes in design solutions in relation to manufacturers whose products contribute to the occurrence of accidents at work. The quality of many types of machines, devices and other products was questioned, the faults of which were exclusive, major, or accompanying cause of accidents.
KRUS representatives take an active part in agricultural fairs, exhibitions, seminars and scientific and training conferences as well as in other similar events, during which they organize information and preventive stands, as well as competitions, exhibitions and demonstrations of safe work for farmers. At selected international, national and regional events, stands are set up together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and institutions acting for the benefit of agriculture, including the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture and the National Centre for Agricultural Support.
In 2022, a new project of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund was launched: “Safe Farmer, Safe Countryside”, which brings together all forms of preventive action by KRUS relating to the most common accident categories and groups of occupational diseases in agriculture. It comprises eight KRUS campaigns.