PROFESSIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT AS A BASIS FOR ENSURING THE SAFETY OF PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Abstract

The article examines the problem of ensuring the safety of production activities in the agricultural sector through a systematic approach to professional risk management. The relevance of the study is determined by the wide variety of hazardous and harmful occupational factors characteristic of agricultural production, technical maintenance, repair, transportation, livestock farming, and other technological processes. The necessity of shifting from a predominantly reactive approach to occupational safety, based on responding to accidents after they occur, towards preventive professional risk management is substantiated. The main groups of hazards in agricultural production are systematized, including mechanical, electrical, chemical, biological, physical, thermal, fire and explosion hazards, as well as ergonomic, psychophysiological, and organizational hazards. A structural and logical sequence of risk management is proposed, comprising hazard identification, determination of the causes of their occurrence, risk assessment and ranking, selection of control measures, monitoring of their effectiveness, and repeated risk assessment. The use of the 4M model is proposed for analyzing the causes of hazardous events. The model considers four groups of factors: “Man – Machine – Medium – Management.” An approach to the quantitative assessment of occupational risk is proposed based on an integral indicator that takes into account the probability of occurrence of a hazardous event, the severity of potential consequences, and the level of employee exposure. The necessity of integrating occupational safety, technical, fire, chemical, and biological safety, as well as civil protection, into a unified safety management system of an agricultural enterprise is substantiated. The main areas for improving the professional risk management system are identified, including enhancing hazard assessment, increasing the role of engineering protection measures, developing a safety culture, systematic analysis of incidents and near-miss events, and improving the level of professional training of employees. The practical significance of the results lies in the possibility of applying the proposed approach to occupational risk assessment at agricultural enterprises, organizing safe production processes, providing technical maintenance of machinery and equipment, developing local regulatory documents, and training students in agricultural, engineering, and other related fields