Health and safety are key issues for all agricultural businesses and while the cotton sector is an industry leader in this area, further work was required to strengthen on-farm systems and processes.

In managing these risks to health and safety, there are well acknowledged systems and processes that can enhance a business’s capacity to not only meet legislative requirements, but also to enhance productivity. This is also important given the recent national harmonisation of the Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation.

Since the development of the Managing Cotton Farm Safety program and related resources in 2000, these materials have been incorporated into the myBMP program. However, since 2000 there have been considerable developments in cotton farming technologies, resulting in changed practices that have an impact on health and safety. In light of these changes, these resource materials required updating to ensure they meet current best practice.

In 2012 key industry stakeholders assisted in a WHS mapping of the existing myBMP and Managing Cotton Farm Safety resources to ensure they reflect current best practice. Based on this review, the resources were updated to meet the established best practice benchmarks and trialled with growers.

Resources were updated based on these recommendations and then be piloted with a small group of growers to ensure their relevance and practical application. Resources were then uploaded into the myBMP program.

The resources provide a comprehensive suite of materials to assist growers in meeting all current WHS obligations. The availability of these resources ensures that all growers can access the best available information to support their health and safety systems and practices specific to the industry. A key pre-requisite to improved safety will be increasing the utilization of these resources through the myBMP platform. Ongoing improvements in health and safety performance by the cotton industry will have a positive impact on restricting increments in workers compensation claims and also maximizing productivity