Assessment of Safety Levels in the Agricultural Sector for Supporting Social Sustainability: A Quantitative Analysis from a National Point of View

Abstract

The scientific debate about sustainability in the agricultural sector is growing worldwide, especially thanks to the increasing awareness of customers towards the impact of their consumption behaviors. While a great deal of attention is given to the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability, social sustainability assessment often focuses on the quality of life of farmers and the local community; the dimension regarding occupational health and safety (OHS) is not so analyzed even if the agricultural sector could be evaluated as one of the most hazardous ones all over the world. From this point of view, workers are considered high-risk groups mainly due to the presence of hazardous equipment and chemicals. The aim of this work is to propose a cross-analysis developed on public databases reporting data about injuries in the Italian agricultural sector—provided by the Italian National Institute for the Insurance of Work-Related Injuries (INAIL)—in order to point out the main sources and causes that led to these injuries. The injury analysis will allow companies as well as institutions to define more effective prevention strategies to increase the social sustainability levels of this sector. Even if results are limited to the Italian sector, they could outline some directions for improving social sustainability levels as well as research gaps and possible future research directions in order to prevent injuries in the agricultural sector.