"Reducing Cultivator Accidents"...Handle-Type Conversion Allowed and Support for Scrapping Aging Cultivators

At the Emergency Economic Headquarters and Economic Ministers' Meeting

Announcement of the “Comprehensive Safety Management Plan for the Agricultural and Forestry Sector”

Targeting a Reduction in Fatal Accidents: “297 to 220 Deaths”

In order to reduce the frequent incidents involving cultivators in the agricultural sector, the government has decided to allow the modification of existing “clutch-type steering wheels” to “handle-type” steering wheels. This change is being made because clutch-type systems are more prone to accidents such as overturning due to sudden turns, and require relatively more physical effort to operate. Additionally, the government will support the scrapping of aging cultivators. The mandatory installation of protective structures, which help minimize damage in case of accidents, will be expanded to include forklifts and excavators. Furthermore, a “seat belt non-wearing warning device,” which emits an alarm when the seat belt is not fastened, will also be required.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on June 5, 2026, at the Emergency Economic Headquarters and Economic Ministers' Meeting, the “Comprehensive Safety Management Plan for the Agricultural and Forestry Sector,” which includes these measures.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs explained, “The accident rate in the agricultural sector (based on agricultural safety insurance) is about 7.5 times higher than the overall industrial accident rate (based on industrial accident insurance), and the fatality rate is about 3.1 times higher. This new plan reflects the government’s commitment to minimizing workplace accidents in the agricultural and forestry sectors, in response to the aging rural population and increased mechanization, and to protecting the lives and safety of farmers and forestry workers.”

According to the ministry, as of 2024, there were 297 fatalities and 50,852 injuries resulting from agricultural accidents. The government’s goal is to reduce these figures by 25% by 2030, lowering the number of deaths to 202 and the number of injuries to 38,152.

◆ Ensuring Agricultural Machinery Safety = First, the ministry has developed measures to minimize overturning, entanglement, cutting, and traffic accidents, considering that more than half of all agricultural accidents involve machinery.

For cultivators, which have a high accident rate, the government plans to encourage the scrapping of aging cultivators owned by elderly farmers and to improve regulations so that the existing walking-type steering wheels can be converted to handle-type steering wheels. For shredders, it will become mandatory to install automatic stop features and reverse rotation functions when there is physical approach, and there will be a focus on promoting joint shredding with experts to prevent accidents among unskilled users.

To prevent damage from overturning or rollover accidents, the range of agricultural machinery required to have safety structures such as frames and cab types will be expanded. Currently, only tractors, transporters, and ride-on mowers are required to have these protections, but in the future, forklifts and excavators will also be included.

Additionally, for ride-on agricultural machinery where seat belts are already mandatory, the installation of non-wearing warning devices (which emit an alarm for 90 seconds if the seat belt is not worn) will also become mandatory, with the regulatory revision to be completed by the second half of this year. Alongside this, a system will be established to automatically link agricultural machinery accident information to emergency services (119) through the installation of accident detection devices.

◆ Advanced Safety Management for Agricultural Facilities = Measures to prevent accidents, such as suffocation and falls, which frequently occur in livestock facilities, will also be reinforced. To prevent suffocation accidents in various work areas of pig farms (such as slurry pits, collection tanks, and manure treatment facilities), the ministry will collaborate with the Korea Pork Producers Association to jointly purchase and provide safety equipment such as ventilation fans, ducts, and air-supply masks, and to improve the system so that regular and mandatory inspections can be carried out. For recipients of the livestock facility modernization project, measures such as the mandatory installation of safety railings and signs to prevent falls and suffocation accidents will be implemented, and support for small farms to install safety equipment—such as ventilation fans and skylight covers to prepare for heat waves and heavy snow—will also be strengthened. In collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, a subsidy program will be implemented to cover 60–95% of the cost of installing fall-prevention facilities (such as safety nets and mats) to prevent roof fall accidents.

For agricultural product distribution facilities such as Agricultural Products Processing Centers (APC) and Rice Processing Complexes (RPC), the incentive or penalty system for repair and maintenance funding will be enhanced based on the results of safety inspections, in order to ensure that inspections are substantive rather than merely formalities.

In particular, to prevent accidents in reservoirs and irrigation/drainage channels (including connecting farm roads), where there is a high risk of falls, the ministry will install access-blocking facilities such as safety fences and railings, as well as warning signs and night lighting. Small reservoirs (with a capacity of less than 50,000 cubic meters) will be included in the list of facilities subject to emergency inspections, and a complete inspection system will be established during flood seasons and other periods of high leakage risk.

◆ Strengthening the Foundation for Safety Management = The government also plans to establish new legislation to efficiently implement various tasks to prevent safety accidents in the agricultural and forestry sectors. The current insurance-focused “Act on Safety Insurance for Farmers and Fishermen” will be separated, and a new “Agricultural Work Safety Accident Prevention Act” (tentative name) will be created.

Additionally, by 2028, the existing agricultural safety insurance products will be gradually integrated into higher-coverage products in order to strengthen agricultural safety insurance to the level of industrial accident insurance, and the government is considering provisions to exempt employers of agricultural workers from liability in the event of safety accidents.

To enable efficient policy development and implementation, the government will manage agricultural work fatal accident statistics as national approved statistics this year, and by 2028, non-fatal accident statistics will also be incorporated into the national statistical system by improving data collection processes.

Minister Song Miryung of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated, “This comprehensive plan will minimize accidents among agricultural and forestry workers and will prioritize tasks that can be implemented immediately to create a safer work environment that workers can feel on the ground. We will continue to improve and monitor the plan to perfect the safety management system in the agricultural and forestry sectors and protect the lives and safety of farmers and forestry workers.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.