Saving lives and limbs: ACES team advocates for agricultural machine safety around the world
Using data collected on agricultural machine-related injuries in Pakistan, a team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is advocating for a safer work environment for farmers around the world.
Just two machines, the fodder cutter and the thresher, were together responsible for 79% of the agricultural machine-related injuries reported in two Pakistani provinces during 2022-2023, many of which caused amputations, according to a study that is detailed in Safety 2024.
The research team surveyed orthopedic surgeons in Sindh and Punjab. A total of 507 injuries were reported, with 121 being fatal and 38% requiring amputations. The fodder cutter was responsible for 201 injuries; the thresher contributed to 197 of the injuries.
“Prior to this study we were aware of several hospitals in Pakistan, and other areas of the world, reporting a high number of fodder cutter incidents. But there seemed to be no effort to educate and work with farmers to reduce the number of incidents, which is what we hope to accomplish after publishing our study,” said Salah Issa, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE), part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and The Grainger College of Engineering at the U. of I.
Issa conducted the study with Sajid Raza, a graduate student in ABE, and collaborators in Pakistan. The fodder cutter is a locally manufactured machine that helps prepare food for livestock. Fodder cutters can be manual or electric; electric are more commonly used and cause more severe injuries. Due to increased food demand, the reliance on the fodder cutter will continue to grow.
“Some of the hazards associated with fodder cutters include amputations due to placing hands near the blades or shaft, crushing body parts near the wheel operating the fodder cutter, and burns from the motor, near blades or shaft for cutting the fodder,” explained Issa.
Since publication, the team has gathered additional data from two more hospitals from the past five years. “We are seeing similar trends and were able to document another 400-500 cases,” Issa said.
Issa and Raza are now interviewing farmers who have fodder cutters to better understand risk, and they plan to interview individuals who were injured from fodder cutters to better understand safety modifications and their limitations.
“Our goal is to develop a safety program and potentially a safer fodder cutter,” Issa concluded.
The study, “Insights into Agricultural Machine Injuries in Pakistan: An Orthopedic surgeons survey ( (2022-2023),” is published in Safety 2024, 10, 55. [DOI: 10.3390/safety10030055]. Additional authors include Zamir Tunio and Ikram Ujjan. The research was supported by an ACES International Seed Grant.