Current issue / problem: farming remains among the most dangerous occupations in the U.S. With an annual death rate of 26.0/100,000 persons compared to 3.3/100,000 persons overall (OSHA, 2020)

Visimo LLC received a $123,680 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program to develop a risk management tool for small and mid-sized agricultural producers. The tool will integrate machine learning capabilities to predict safety risks on farms and suggest risk-reducing changes. Data will be collected from farm sites and used to test and increase the accuracy of risk predictions. The tool aims to increase safety for workers and families on small farms that are typically exempt from comprehensive safety regulations. Upon completion of the project on February 28, 2023, Visimo intends to market the tool directly to small farms and potentially to insurance agencies as a means to evaluate farm sites and encourage premium discounts for safer operations.

Nationally, workers in agriculture, forestry, and fishing (AFF) industries are up to 33 times more likely to DIE on the job than workers in other industries (U.S. Bureau of labor statistics, 2020). When last examined by leigh ET AL. In 2001, the cost of farm-related injuries nationally averaged an estimated $4.57 billion/year. This represents a contribution of 30% more than the national average to occupational injury costs (leigh ET AL, 2001). Youth are especially impacted by agriculture hazards. Farms, ranches, and other agricultural operations are worksites and often homes as well. AG operations have been linked to a child fatality occurring approximately every 3 days (nccrahs, 2020; goldcamp ET AL, 2004; write ET AL, 2013).methods / approaches:the proposed work is divided into three primary steps: (1) data is gathered, risk scores are assigned, and this new information is integrated into the model; (2) data is collected in the field using the developed tool and gathered ground-truth data is used to test risk predictions; (3) machine learning is incorporated into the model to significantly increase the accuracy of risk prediction. The proposed risk management tool encompasses the complexity of real-world risk, is usable in rural settings without internet access, and takes less than 44 seconds to record an observation, calculate a risk score, and suggest risk-reducing changesultimate goals:currently, small and mid-sized agricultural producers are not required to follow the same insurance coverage requirements or safety regulations as large operations, including OSHA inspection authorization/jurisdiction, which typically only covers farms with 11 or more non-family employees. There are some exceptions to this rule (e.g. california and washington), as requirements vary between some states. Furthermore, there are virtually no safety regulations in place for working youth employed by their parents. For example, skid steers cannot be operated on a construction site by a worker under age 18. Yet, agricultural operators employing their own child can put them in the operator (or passenger) seat at any age (healy, 2018). While visimo intends to market the proposed solution to small farms as a method to increase safety for workers and family working and living on farms, the advancement of future safety regulations could enable visimo to market directly to insurance agencies as a method for site evaluation, perhaps encouraging premium discounts for farms that utilize the tool.