Seminar to address difficulties faced by farmers with disabilities

A study has found that 6% of farmers in Ireland reported a disability, a public seminar on Farming Safely with a Disabling Condition will be told in Dublin next week.

The seminar will take place at the Teagasc Food and Innovation Centre, Ashtown, Co Meath on September 4 with Dr William Field, Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, Indiana, US, as principal speaker.

Professor Field leads the Indiana AgrAbility programme called Breaking New Ground, which assists farmers with disabilities to modify their farms and equipment to allow them continue to farm.

The Irish research by Dr Shane Whelan at Teagasc and the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science also found that farmers with a disability were dissatisfied with the level of service available.

Dr Robert Stutridge will also present the findings of a scoping exercise on setting up an AgrAbility type service among farmers in Ireland.