Improved clothing for agricultural productivity in Ghana a case study of Benso oil palm plantation and Ghana rubber estates limited of the Western Region

Abstract

Agricultural employees have permanently or temporarily been disabled by work-associated accidents due to insufficient knowledge in safety in handling equipment and machines and obeying simple procedures for achieving set tasks. Poor health and safety practices in the farming system leads to illness, accidents and low productivity. The advantages of using PPE make it possible to eliminate unnecessary accidents. But the cost of import, sales, and the quality of the protective clothing have no policy guiding its implementation in the sector simply because, the farmers are private businessmen. The study aimed at improved clothing for agricultural productivity in Ghana at Benso Oil Palm Plantation and Ghana Rubber Estates Limited. The research adopted the mixed-method research design. This pragmatic approach was a sequential exploratory design. The Population of the study consisted of all the agricultural workers between the ages of 25 to 60, engaged in farming where each worker was considered as a unit of analysis. Purposive sampling method was used and stratified random sampling was adopted for analysis and data collection for this study. The major tools for data collection were the questionnaire and interview. Results revealed that training in the use of personal protective on-farm site, quality of personal protective equipment, user-friendliness of the protective garments on farm site, protective personal equipment availability, the ease in care of the protective clothings were a factor considered by the Benso Oil Palm Plantation and Ghana Rubber Estates Limited for the selection of protective clothes for their workers.