Agricultural accidents - A case study in etawah districts of Uttar Pradesh in India

Farm mechanization along with increased application of other agricultural inputs has increased the production and productivity of Indian farms. But, it has also increased casualties through agricultural accidents. Very little information is available about the type and nature of agricultural accidents. Agriculture machinery accident data were collected for the period 1996-2000 for the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh in India and this data were generalized to the whole district according to the survey. The estimated number of victims was 634 in 2000. Out of the total, 55 of the accidents were fatal and the remaining 579 were non-fatal. The agricultural accident incidence rate per 1000 workers per year in the Etawah district was 0.78. The hand tool-related accidents were insignificant as compared to farm machinery accidents. Major causes of agricultural accidents were human factor, 43.3 %, and machine factor, 20.8 %.