Labor Safety and Process Optimization in Agricultural Activities

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural safety is becoming more complex as farming systems are increasingly evolving and integrating technological innovations to overcome economic constraints and environmental uncertainty and to pursue higher productivity and sustainability. Despite all of this, agriculture still remains one of the most hazardous sectors worldwide, where workers are exposed to risks related to machinery activities, repetitive and stressful tasks, variable outdoor conditions and a fragile work organization. At the same time, the growing use of digital technologies, automation and data-driven decision systems is changing agricultural processes, creating new opportunities but at the same time also new hazards and challenges for occupational safety.

In this changing context, safety cannot be considered only as compliance with regulations, but it should instead be integrated in technological innovation, process design and work organization. Research in this field is therefore innovating and helping to look at the bigger picture of safety from a comprehensive point of view as this can support the development of safer, more efficient, and more resilient agricultural systems altogether. In particular, there is a growing need for interdisciplinary contributions able to connect engineering, ergonomics, digital agriculture, human factors, and management approaches in order to improve both labor protection and process performance.

This Special Issue aims to present the most recent advances related to Labor Safety and Process Optimization in Agricultural Activities. Contributions addressing technological, organizational, and human-centered solutions for reducing occupational risks will be considered, especially if they focus on improving operational efficiency, integrating resilience engineering approaches and supporting the transition toward smarter agricultural systems.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Occupational risk assessment in agricultural activities;
• Safety in the use and design of agricultural machinery and equipment;
• Ergonomics and human factors in agricultural work;
• Automation and robotics for safer agricultural operations;
• Digital agriculture tools for monitoring, prevention, and decision support;
• Safety education, training, and innovative learning tools or environments in agriculture;
• Resilience engineering and organizational approaches for agricultural safety;
• Process optimization methods for improving efficiency and reducing risk exposure;
• Human–machine interaction in smart farming systems;
• Case studies and field applications of technologies for safer agricultural activities.

Dr. Pierluigi Rossi
Dr. Giovanni Carabin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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