Appraisal of safety practices in agro‐allied industries in south‐western Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the safety practices in some selected agro‐allied industries in south‐western Nigeria with a view to analysing the degree of safety awareness; adequacy of safety equipment; extent of enforcing safety rules; effectiveness of safety‐related activities and economics of safety programme.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study method of investigation, field study guidelines and binary variable were used and information gathered from 36 industries was documented. The data collected were analysed using mean, percentage and standard mathematical models. The analyses carried out on the data gathered are presented on the following: occurrence of accidents, causes of accidents, damages resulting from accidents, accident prevention activities and economic implications.

Findings

Three classes of accidents are identified as fatal, serious, and minor. The results showed that minor accident has the highest frequency of occurrence of 304, while fatal accident has the least frequency of occurrence of 17. However, serious accident has the greatest economic implication, accounting for annual average loss of $4.97 millions. Also, nine causes of accidents are identified, out of which faulty equipment is common to all industries. And eight accident prevention activities are identified, amongst which standard operating procedure, good housekeeping and on‐the‐job training are commonly being practised, while provision of safety handbook and policy is least practised.

Originality/value

This paper has described the safety practices in 15 agro‐allied industries with an organised safety programme in South Western Nigeria. The study has investigated the extent of enforcement of safety rules; safety awareness; and economic implication of accidents from this sector for the national economy.

Citation

Adebiyi, K.A., Jekayinfa, S.O. and Charles‐Owaba, E.O. (2005), "Appraisal of safety practices in agro‐allied industries in south‐western Nigeria", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 80-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/09653560510583842