Applying Hierarchical Task Analysis to Depict Human Safety Errors during Pesticide Use in Vineyard Cultivation

Abstract

The use of pesticides in agriculture is a significant problem at a global level, not only from an environmental perspective but also from the farmers’ health and safety point of view. In the literature, several studies have discussed the safe behavior and risk perception of farmers. However, human errors when dealing with pesticides and the related work equipment are rarely considered. To reduce this research gap, a study of the human safety errors in pesticide use based on hierarchical task analysis is proposed. In particular, such a bottom-up approach was applied to vineyard cultivation and considered all the activities that operators carry out when using pesticides. The results of this study showed that most of the identified human errors were action errors, i.e., potential failures of the operator in completing the activity successfully. In addition, retrieval and checking errors resulted in being rather common. These outputs shed light on the gap between the information received and the practical need for operators to reduce their failure to perform specific activities. Therefore, while the present study augments current knowledge on the safe use of pesticides, further research is needed to address human errors in agricultural activities, thus extending these results to a larger sample size as well as to other cultivation types.

NOSACQ-50 for Safety Climate Assessment in Agricultural Activities: A Case Study in Central Italy

“…Looking at the overall results, the fact that most SC dimensions need improvement brings to light a low level of safety perception of the interviewed sample at their workplace. This is a not surprising result, since such an aspect confirms the assumption that a low level of SC is related to a high rate of occupational injuries and diseases [71], and numerous recent studies have shown the vulnerability of farmers to occupational accidents [31,72,73]. In particular, consistent with other studies [14,74], overall values showed a higher score for the organizational-level dimensions (mean value for Dim1, Dim2, and Dim3 = 2.99) than that related to the worker-level climate (mean value for Dim4, Dim5, Dim 6, Dim7 = 2.87).…”

Safety Vision of Agricultural Tractors: An Engineering Perspective Based on Recent Studies (2009–2019)

“…Other studies have analyzed injuries related to this type of equipment in specific geographical contexts [33][34][35][36][37]. Further studies have addressed the problem considering the users' behavior and attitudes [38][39][40].…”

Anomaly Detection on Data Streams for Smart Agriculture

“…Agricultural crop production is dependent on the management of elements such as soil, water, and pests, and climate conditions and unforeseen hazards for sustainable agricultural output [1]. Pesticide usage in agriculture is a major issue on a global scale both in terms of the environment, and the health and safety of farmers [2]. Precision agriculture is a strategic approach that collects, processes, and evaluates temporal, spatial, and individual data, and other types of information in order to support managerial decisions on the basis of estimated variability for increased the resource-utilisation efficiency, productivity, quality, profitability, and stability of agricultural production.…”